


Force of Nature (Incomplete)

by ArchangelRoman



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 1d, Kryptonite, Liam - Freeform, Liam Payne - Freeform, M/M, Malik - Freeform, Meteor Rocks, Payne - Freeform, Smallville - Freeform, Smallville AU, Supernatural - Freeform, Zayn Malik - Freeform, one direction - Freeform, zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-07 23:49:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchangelRoman/pseuds/ArchangelRoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam's old boyfriend, Zayn Malik, comes back to town after being gone for five months. While dealing with the emotional turmoil that was a teenage relationship and hormones, Liam has to hide his abilities from Zayn while trying to figure out what type of weapon, Mr. Malik, Zayn's father, has in store for Liam. In the proccess, though, Liam's friends are targeted and emotions are chaotic. Liam must team up with  the most unlikeliest of forces to stop whatever Mr. Malik may be up to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Guess Who's Back?

**Author's Note:**

> I have a thing for One Direction and Smallville. This is the result.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or One Direction in no way, shape or form. This fic is not intended to make a profit. The plot and inventions, however, are my own.

"You probably shouldn't be doing that. A voice tells him.

Liam sighs and lets the two bales of hay hit the floor before he turns around to face the speaker. “Hello, Harry, and a good morning to you too!” he says with sarcastic enthusiasm.

Harry gives a roll of his eyes in return. “Hi,” he says with a slight hand gesture and a sarcastic smile. “You probably shouldn’t be doing that.” He says again as he walks towards Liam with his arms crossed.

Liam turns around and lifts up the two very large bales of hay before moving towards the stable to stack them, Harry on his tail. “Why shouldn’t I be doing this?” he asks as they walk.

“Because someone next door might see you,” Harry announces in a sing song voice.

Liam sets the hay down and turns to Harry, he then arches a brow and proceeds back over to the rest of the hay on the pickup truck. “I’ve been neighbors with Mr. and Mrs. Malik for a while now, Harry, and no offense to them, but they are never home long enough to see me do anything.” He picks up two more bales of hay and heads back the same way he came.

Harry continues to follow him, even struggling his own bale of hay despite the fact that he's using both hands and half his body. “Well Zayn is coming home,” Harry grunts, face red as a tomato as he heaves the hay.

Liam takes pity on him and carelessly tosses his two and takes Harry's from him before chucking it in the barn as well. He does this until they’re all lined up before dusting his hands off and turns to his best friend. “Say again?”

Harry smiles with faux innocence. “Did I say something?” he asks, playing dumb.

Liam really didn’t want to play dumb. He wanted to pick Harry up and shake him until he spilled. “Harry!” Liam half complained, half warned.

“Oh fine.” Harry gives. “I overheard Mrs. Malik talking to your mom at the grocery store while they were at the checkout, and I might have been listening in... from aisle three.”

Liam’s eyebrows draw together as he puts the pieces together. Harry, his best mate, is telepathic. He can read minds, speak to minds, change thoughts, plant memories—the works. The scariest thing is, though, that Harry is good with his ability. He’s fucking amazing at it, actually, and it’s terrifying, Liam thinks, to have that much power.

“Oh shut up,” Harry had told Liam when he’d been caught thinking that a few weeks ago. “You can run at the speed of sound, lift the equivalent of the weight of a battleship, and a bullet to the head won’t cause a scratch. A bullet to my head would kill me instantly and my abilities. So I ask you, Liam. Who has the most power?”

And Liam had just changed the subject. He didn’t admit to Harry’s claim, but he didn’t deny it either.

“Harry, I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t use our abilities on our parents?” Liam scolded, reminding Harry of the rule they both agreed to (and broke) many times.

“I know, I know. But I wasn’t mind raping them,” Harry protests, “and I thought you would appreciate the information about Zayn.”

Liam had to admit that yes, he did want the information about Zayn moving back to town. He’d had a crush on Zayn ever since they first met so many years ago. For a while they were close. Not as Close and he and Harry are with Harry knowing his secret and all, but they were pretty freaking close. Now that Liam thinks back on it, maybe they were a little _too_ friendly to be just friends. He shrugs that thought away though, because Zayn was totally straight. He thought.

“Well... Don’t do it again.” Liam rakes his hand through his prickly soft shaved head and asks, “So when is Zayn getting here anyway?”

“Any minute now,” Harry says, he seems sure of himself and he’s trying to suppress a smirk.

Liam narrows his eyes in suspicious before enhancing his hearing. A few miles out, about three he guesses, and he can hear the engines of the gargantuan u-hauls trucks. “Your range has expanded,” Liam approves.

Harry beams. “I know, now hush. I’m trying to concentrate.”

Liam knew the fingers he put to his temple is just for show, to show Liam he’s concentrating. If Liam concentrates, he hears about three u-hauls and the animated talk of a teenage boy. He waits for a few seconds but the unknown boy is going on and on and on and Liam sighs, frustrated. “Come on,” he mutters as he continues listening. He can tell Harry is listening as well, but probably finding out about the mystery being riding with the boy he knows is there and finally he hears it.

“Okay, Lou,” Zayn says and Liam’s heart flutters at hearing the familiar voice. “You’ve been to Smallville before, so I don’t see why you’re so excited.” He knows that voice; is used to listening to that voice during boring lectures throughout the school day, or listen to Zayn sing himself softly to sleep. If Liam thinks about it from an objective point of view, it’s a bit creepy but it is what it is.

“I don’t see why you’re not,” Lou counters. “You’ll finally get to see Mr. All English-American Boy.”

“Shut up,” Zayn says and Liam swears he can almost _hear_ the blush rising to Zayn’s cheeks.

After that he stops listening and just watches. The u-hauls pull up first and block off the block because they have nowhere to park except for in the grass on the side of the road, or on the lawn. When Liam sees Zayn get out of the car, he happily notes how Zayn instantly looks Liam’s way and spots him the moment he looks over. They both exchange waves and smiles that one knows the other wouldn’t be able to see, but still does it because Zayn just makes him smile.

Liam looks over to Harry because he notes no movement from Harry and he _knows_ Zayn waved at him. “Harry, are you still listening?”

“Yes.”

“Cut it out!” Liam hisses.

The mysterious voice—Lou, Liam corrects—looks their way too and he seems friendly enough. He gives a friendly smile and a wave in the general direction as well.  Liam gives a half assed smile and wave back until Zayn and Lou turn around and head inside.

“Li, you have to listen to this.” Harry’s grinning now, on the verge of uncontrollable laughter. “Whoever this Lou guy is, he’s got a filthy mouth.”

Liam wants to listen, he really does, but Home should be privacy and—he turns his head to the side a second after a mental debate, and listens to the upstairs area of Zayn’s house.

_“You never know,” Lou is saying. “Maybe he had lice and that’s why he cut off his hair. You said he loved his hair, so why cut it off?”_

_Liam hears Zayn’s breath of patience and hears him say, in a forced calm, “I also said I think he looks cute like that, despite the reason he cut it off. And just because he lives on a farm doesn’t mean he doesn’t use shampoo.”_

_“Right,” Lou says with false cheer. “What does he use for gel, the butter that he gets after milking the cows?” Louis laughed and despite the fact that it was a pleasant sound regardless of the tone of the disgust Louis used prior, it didn’t last long as Louis suddenly groans in pain._

_“Lou, you okay?” Zayn asks, concerned._

_“’M fine,” Louis assures. “I just got a massive migraine. It came out of nowhere._

Liam doesn’t hear Zayn’s response because he’s too busy laughing too hard. He knew for a fact that Harry gave Louis the migraine. And no, he didn’t condone it, that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate his friend sticking up for him. “Really, Harry? You gave him a migraine?” Liam asks with a grin.

“It could’ve been an aneurism.” Harry says with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t act like he didn’t deserve it.”

“Maybe he did,” Liam nods, “but you shouldn’t use your powers to antagonize people who don’t have abilities to defend themselves.”

“Alright,” Harry agrees. “That was the last time.”

Liam arches a brow, obviously not believing him. “Promise?” he asks.

“Yes, jeez, I promise!” Harry says, imitating a child throwing a fit causing both of them to burst into laughter.

A throat clears behind them and they both freeze. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Liam turns around with a weak “who me?” smile. “Mom?” he asks with false innocence.

“Were you spying on the neighbors?”She asks accusingly.

“No?” He says. But he’s a shit liar and everyone knows.

“If you’re spying on the neighbors, that mean’s Zayn’s back.” She muses and smile crosses her face. “Oh, by the way, spying is bad, Liam. Don’t do that. And if you are going to do it, don’t get caught.”

Harry bursts into laughter.

Mrs. Payne continues on, ignoring Harry as she says, “Now where was I, Dear? Oh right, the Malik’s are back which means that we can have a Sunday dinner with the Malik family tonight!”

Liam blanches. Who was the fool that thought a Sunday dinner between the two of those families would be fun? No. It just didn’t work that way. Liam’s and Zayn’s dads both despised one another. They were two very, very different people with two very, very different views on raising children. Though sometimes they could have a civil conversation, that’s only because Harry was there to snuff out the bad stuff by making Mr. Payne and Mr. Malik forgets whatever rude comment they were thinking up.”

Liam’s quick to protest with stating the obvious, “Mom, no! I can’t handle another debate between Dad and Mr. Malik.”

“Oh, Pumpkin--,”

Harry snickers.

“—you know I can’t stand it either, but Mrs. Malik and I get along very well and we’ve both talked to our husbands and we agreed we could all sit down for a civil dinner. Plus, I know you’re dying to see Zayn, so forget about lying and telling me otherwise.” Mrs. Payne then briskly walked away with a knowing glint in her eyes.

“I’m sorry mate, but your mum rules!”

Liam glares at his curly haired friend for a moment before it slowly morphed into a devilish smile. “Know what else rules? You get to go with me.”

“Uh, no, actually—,”

Liam grins and takes off in a blur of motion and runs, quick as lightning, into the house and finds his mother. “Harry wants to come with us tonight. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” he mother agrees easily. It was probably because Liam and Harry went basically everywhere together.

“Great! Thanks, Mom.” He kisses her on the cheek and speeds off to the shower. As he’s getting in the shower, he hears Harry’s voice in his head: _Cheater._

_~***~_

They were in Liam’s room. He’d just gotten out of the shower when he found Harry lying across his bed playing with the baseball that somehow every farm kid ends up with.

“So,” Harry begins as he tosses a baseball up and down. “Dinner with your on again, off again boyfriend and his blackmailing father-- Awesome. Desert should be a riot.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Zayn and I are...” he trailed off. What exactly did you call that type of relationship? Whenever Zayn was in Smallville, it was known that he and Liam were together. Whenever Zayn left Smallville, however, he was up for grabs. They weren’t boyfriend/boyfriend because their relationship—if it can be called that—is many things, but it wasn’t an official thing. It was complicated. “Cool. We’re cool, but his father on the other hand.”

Harry tries to suppress a smile as he asks, “The same father that knows your secret?”

“The very same,” Liam answers as he begins getting dressed. He pulled on his briefs with the towel still on seeing as Harry was in the room. It’s not like they haven’t seen one another naked on many occasions, but something about the fact that you could be having a boyfriend in the next hour makes one rethink their actions. Once his briefs are safely in place, he drops the towel and pulls out some jeans to iron.

“Well I think he might try and get you to rob a few banks for him or something, you know? Or maybe kill someone. That wouldn’t be above the Malik’s, to try and pull something like that.” Harry made a disgusted sound. “Why are we going to their house again? This is a bad idea! Why did you agree to go over there, Liam?”

Shocked, Liam turns to Harry and glares at him. “First, Harry, my _mum_ is making _me_ go so _I_ am making _you_ go. Second, you didn’t stop to think about that when my mum first mentioned it. In fact, if I remember correctly, you were agreeing with her. Piss off.”

“Well fine.” Harry grumbles as he sits up and puts the ball down on the nightstand next to the bed. “But I may entertain the idea of a bum crashing our party.”

Liam sighs because he believed Harry would actually lure a bum to the home and offer him a seat at a dinner table he didn’t own. Mr. Malik would be furious and Harry would have fulfilled his goal to ruin the night. Liam sighed. “Harry, please don’t bring a bum to dinner.” It was a shame to even have to say that, Liam thought.

“You’re no fun.”

Looking in the mirror, Liam frowned. “I look like I’m going to a funeral.” He stared at himself wearing black everything. A black button down shirt, a black tie, black slacks, and black loafers probably shouldn’t be worn to a Sunday dinner, but it was all he had that was some type of classy.

“You have that powder blue button down at my house. My mom probably just finished laundry—“

Three seconds later, Liam was checking himself out in the powder blue button down. “What do you think?”

“I think Zayn will try to fuck you on the table by desert.”

“Gross.”

“Kinky.”

“Is not.”

“Is so.”

“Maybe a little.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Liam does the very mature thing and sticks out his tongue.

“Really, mate?” Harry says with a roll of his eyes. In a flash, he offers his arm and straightens his spine. “Shall we?”

Debating for a moment, Liam shakes his head. “No. Sorry. I might be getting fucked in thirty minutes and you on my arm will probably just complicate things.”

“How does one complicate a complicated relationship?” Harry asks as he and Liam make their way downstairs to meet Liam’s parents.

“The type of complicated we have right now is awkward hellos and goodbyes but great make-out sessions everywhere in between. If he thinks I am taken, he may not want to make out. And, since you point out at every opportunity, I am sort of in love with him.”

“I’m sorry, mate, but what’s the point if he’s just going to leave again?”

That freezes Liam. He hadn’t thought about that, to be honest. He was just happy with the fact that Zayn was in reachable, kissing distance. Whatever he and Mr. Malik have to work out had nothing to do with Liam and Zayn.

“Doesn’t it?” Harry asks, picking up on Liam’s thoughts.

Liam glares at him, but he knows sometimes Harry can’t control it. When Liam asked him how it works, he responded by telling Liam that, “It’s sometimes like I’m hearing two conversations at once. When I focus on one, it becomes crystal clear and the other fades away. So if I am listening to you with my ears, I can’t listen to you with my head.” And Liam didn’t blame him because controlling abilities was difficult. Sometimes Liam’s strength jumps and he is a lot stronger than he thinks.

“No it doesn’t,” he replies with a little frost to his voice. In the kitchen, Liam goes over to the fridge and pours two small glasses of orange juice from a glass pitcher in the fridge. “Zayn has nothing against me or me against him.” Maybe, and it’s a long shot, but just maybe Harry didn’t pick up on all the doubt in his voice.

He did.

“Liam,” Harry began.

“No, Harry, just... not tonight. Please?” Liam puts the juice back slowly, taking the time away from Harry to compose himself.

Harry nods. “Of course,” he responds.

Liam smiles gratefully and pushes the second glass of OJ towards Harry.

_~***~_

When Liam and his family arrived at the Malik’s place, everyone was given a task. Liam was in charge of making the mashed potatoes. Since Harry and Liam were in a remote location of the kitchens, Harry kept urging Liam to use his super speed and get their chore over with so that they could go find Zayn.

While everyone had a job, Zayn didn’t. He begged it off with all four parents and all of them allowed him to go do whatever it was he and his friend were supposed to be doing. Speaking of which, where was the mysterious Louis, Liam wondered?

“He’s coming in two minutes,” Harry responded whilst looking down and typing away on his phone.

“How do you...” Liam trailed off as Harry gave him an ‘are you serious?’ look. “Zayn?” he guessed and nodded at Harry’s hum of agreement.

“So,” Harry begins with a smug smirk, “it’d take around five more minutes to do these chores and then you get no alone time with Zayn. Sound good?”

Liam sighed. Harry had won this one and they both knew it. After checking for cameras—it was the base of operations for his enemy, of course there would be cameras—and angling his body around so that one couldn’t really see what he was doing with his hands, Liam quickly finished off the potatoes and mashed them up as instructed.

Mrs. Malik appeared just after Liam had finished. “All done?” she’d asked and Liam nodded. He was done and he was ready to find her son and make out with him in one of the closets hopefully. She smiled and went to ruffl Liam’s fluffy, silky, wavy and soft hair so that it looked tousled all over and kind of adorable like she used to do when he was smaller. It must register a few seconds late that he shaved his head as Ms. Malik hesistates before dropping her hand. "I suppose you're a bit old for that now, huh?"

Liam's grateful she noticed and just smiled and shrugged in response. “Where’s Zayn?” Liam asked, trying for innocent. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Malik makes a face as she thinks. “I think he was up in his room. But he’s always moving so we never can keep track of him. We should get him a bell.”

Liam laughed and took his cue to dismiss himself from the kitchen leaving Harry to deal with the adults. He took long strides that he normally didn’t take since he just about towered over everyone and took bigger steps. In what seemed like no time at all, Liam was parked in front of Zayn’s door, hand raised to knock but somehow frozen in midair.

Did he really want to see Zayn? Get close only to be ripped apart all over again? Did he want to go through that again? For Zayn to still be oblivious to his feelings but still make Liam feel better than anything? It was tough. He loved Zayn; is _in love_ with Zayn. Full of doubts, he tried to mentally talk himself out of knocking on the door and just walking away. But then Harry is in his head.

_Oh you bloody idiot, just do it!_

_I can’t!_

_Why the hell not?_

_I’m scared._

_What do you have to be scared of?_

_What everyone is scared of: being rejected._

_If he rejects you, Liam, he’s an even bigger idiot than I thought. But he does make you happy and I want to see you happy. So DO IT!_

_FINE!_

Liam takes a few deep breathes to pump himself up. He shakes his head as if it’d get rid of the small ache at the back of his head that he somehow just knew would go away after he knocked on the door. Every second he waited caused the pain to intensify.

_Alright, I’m going!_

_Not fast enough._

_Alright, alright!_

The pain recedes and Liam can breathe without wincing now. He loved Harry to death, but sometimes his methods were a little much, but effective.

_It could’ve been an aneurism._

_Fuck you._

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he stood frozen outside of Zayn’s door with his hand poised to knock, but he was guessing he probably looked ridiculous. Finally gathering up the strength and courage to knock the door, Liam goes to knock on the door.


	2. Dinner With the Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam and Harry, as well as their parents, attend a Sunday dinner at the Malik residence. What could go wrong?

The door opens before Liam has a chance to knock. Zayn and Louis tumble out of the room, laughing at a private joke with their hands intertwined. Liam's blood runs cold. He can feel it as all hope and color drains from his face. Anger ignites in an instant and pulls his lips downward Liam stares at their joined hands until Zayn notices him.

“Liam?” he asked with what sounds like surprise, but Liam can’t be too sure and he can’t look at Zayn’s face because he’s still staring at their hands.

“Liam!” he hears his mother call. “Time to wash up, dinner’s almost ready!”

That snaps him out of it. “Coming!” he calls without taking his eyes off their hands which, when Zayn realizes what he’s staring at, snatch apart. Without facing Zayn or Louis, Liam turns and makes his way hastily to the restroom.

Behind closed doors, he stands in front of the mirror as bad thoughts seemed to fill his mind. _He’s moved on and forgot about you_ , the voice says and Liam denies it. He tries to deny it, but why wouldn’t Zayn? Louis wasn’t a bad looking guy and he seemed to be Zayn’s type, in a way. Liam could totally see them together except he sort of can’t. Unjustified anger swells in Liam and he suddenly wants to snap Louis in half. He could, he knows he could and it would be so easy! But it would also be murder, he reminds himself. He may be many things, jealous, angry, even a freak of nature, but he was damn sure, no way in hell a murderer.

Once he finished up in the bathroom, he opens the door to exit and Zayn is there. “Hey,” Liam says as he passes. He doesn’t wait for Zayn’s response and makes his way down to the dinner table where everyone, save for Zayn, is already seated. He sees the concerned look Harry throws his way, but he pretends he doesn’t. When Zayn returns and they bow their heads to say grace, Liam keeps his head down and pretends to eat.

The adults have a conversation—Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Malik have a conversation while either Liam’s dad or Zayn’s dad would grunt agreeable at this question or that. It was a poor excuse for a dinner, really.

While pushing his dinner around on his plate, he notices the voices dropped away and into silence. He looks up and all the eyes are on him. “Um...” he looks to Harry for help and Harry looks upset so Liam looks to Mr. Malik. “I’m sorry; could you repeat what you said?”

“I said the mashed potatoes are delicious. What is your secret?” Maybe Liam just heard the double meaning behind the words. He glances around the table and sees Harry glaring at Mr. Malik and his parent’s nervous looks. Zayn and Louis, however, are giving him curious looks. So everyone heard it except Mrs. Malik. That’s just _great_.

 “Um,” he shrugged and gave an obviously forced smile. “Oh you know...”

“It’s his hands,” Mrs. Malik blurts.

Liam’s eyes widen and he sees Harry’s do the same. They both look at her.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Payne asks.

“He crushed them up with his hands so he could get all the little bits the potato masher would’ve missed. Isn’t that right, Liam? That’s why you didn’t use it.”

Liam wasn’t sure where that came from or why she was helping him, but he nodded and smiled, jumping on board. “That’s right, Mrs. Malik, that’s what I do.”

She smiled and went back to dinner. Liam and everyone else did the same.

“So,” Mr. Malik pipes up. “Liam, Harry, have you met Louis?”

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure,” Harry says but the tone of his voice says something along the lines of “who let that thing sit at this table?”

Louis glares daggers at him but stays silent.

Zayn sighs, proper manners outweighing emotions. “Louis, that’s Liam,” Zayn says, gesturing in Liam’s direction. When Liam gives a smile and a wave back, Zayn gestures towards to Harry and says, “And that’s Harry.”

Harry smiles but it’s cold. He’s totally not over earlier.

“So, Louis,” Liam says, attempting to make conversation. He sees Zayn’s look of surprise that Liam would address Louis before him but he continues speaking as if he hadn’t. “How long will you be staying?”

With his super hearing, Liam hears Harry answer, “Probably until Zayn’s done with him too.”

“Just a few years,” Louis answers vaguely.

“Oh. So you’re _not_ staying, then?” Harry asks, almost challenging.

“No, I am.” Louis answers.

“Until you graduate?” Harry inquires.

“Perhaps,” Louise answers again.

“How long do you want to stay?” Harry asks.

“However long it takes,” Louis answers.

_What the hell kind of answer is that?_

Liam wanted to know the same thing. It was pretty vague. All of his answers were.

_Don’t know. Maybe he’s here with Mr. Malik? Can you like... get some information to level the playing field?_

_I thought we don’t use our powers to antagonize._

_Well you wouldn’t be antagonizing, per say. You would be leveling the playing field between me and a multibillion dollar, charismatic and influential C.E.O. of Malik Corp._

_Well then you put it that way..._

_Thanks._

“So, Zayn,” Harry says, attempting to start conversation the way Liam did. The only difference was that Harry had no innocent intentions. “How is Sparks Academy? I think Liam would be grateful to know. You two were so close.”

Liam pauses. He’d been wondering that question for a while now too. Since Zayn got back, Liam has been wondering when he was going to leave again. He was grateful to know even if Harry was just pulling Liam into a conversation that would undoubtedly distract Mr. Malik and allow Harry to no longer contribute to conversation as he zones out to play around in Mr. Malik’s head.

“Well,” Zayn says, clearing his throat and not exactly meeting Liam’s eyes. “It’s fine, I guess. The workload is a bit much but with the individual attention we get from the teachers, it makes it pretty simple and all. Very helpful, those teachers are.”

Liam nods because that’s what he expected: a recorded answer. “What’re you going to do in the mean time for spring break?” Liam asks. It was a loaded question, he knew, one that Zayn would certainly understand.

“Try to be more serious.” Zayn answers and Liam’s grip on his silverware tighten. He subtly moves his hands off the table to bend the silverware back into place before continuing to eat like nothing happened. A few minutes of silence later, and someone is clearing their throat.

“Are you sure you can handle that?” Liam asks after throwing a glance in Harry’s direction to find him still checked out from the rest of them.

“I can handle a lot more than you think,” Zayn says and Liam digs his fingers into his palm.

“No need to take offense, Zayn. I was just wondering because when things start getting intense, you usually bail. Is getting serious the best option for you?” And yeah, maybe it was a childish dig but Liam was still hurt, damn it.

“Sometimes the things that happen are out of our control.” Zayn stabs a piece of meatloaf as he punctuates the word control.

“And sometimes people can’t just own up to what they did.”

“And sometimes people should let the past stay the past,” Louis pips in. He didn’t look at anyone, but it was clear who he was talking to. Liam wanted to smack him. What was he even doing there?

“So,” Mr. Malik pipes up again and Liam almost groans. “Zayn will be going to Smallville high this semester,” he announces.

Liam chokes on his meatloaf. He’s pat on the back by his father and manages to dislodge the obstruction, but not let it out of his mouth. He properly chews and swallows before chasing it down with some water. “What?” he finally manages to squeak out.

“Oh, didn’t he tell you?” Mr. Malik asked. His smile indicated that he already knew Zayn hadn’t said a word about it. “I guess you two aren’t as close as you used to be. You know, with the distance and all.”

Liam smiles, but it’s tight and his jaw is tensed as he bites back a harsh response. “Nope,” Liam looks towards Zayn, barely containing his glare. “Zayn hasn’t told me a lot of things.”

Harry, Louis, and Zayn all look up at him, he can feel it, but he keeps his eyes cast downward and onto his plate and continues to push around his food.

“Well,” Zayn says speaking towards Liam for the second time tonight. “If someone bothered to pick up a phone or even send a text, then that someone would know the recent details of someone else’s life.”

Liam stabs his meatloaf and the plate might’ve cracked a little, maybe. “Well if someone wouldn’t change their number every two weeks and move every five months, then they’d be easier to be in touch with.” He spits back and continues stabbing at his plate.

“Well,” Zayn says, upset now. “If _someone_ would stop acting like a jerk and stop making assumptions, then _maybe_ someone would talk to him.”

“Oh, so I’m acting like a jerk?” Liam asks, dropping his fork onto his plate. “You’re the one that moved away for five months with two days in warning and left without so much as a “see you later, Liam!”” Liam aggressively reminds Zayn, voice higher with his frustrations.

“You haven’t even given me a chance to explain myself!” Zayn’s voice is higher, too.

“There’s nothing that can explain that, Zayn! I thought we were friends, but a real friend wouldn’t have done that to me.” At everyone’s stunned silence, Liam turns to his parents. “May I be excused?” As soon as the okay was out of their mouths, Liam was up and out of his chair heading for his home. He distantly heard another chair scrape and Harry’s voice ask for an excuse as well.

“Liam!”

He kept going, but he did note that it wasn’t Harry’s voice that called out to him. That’s probably because he wasn’t stopping. He could disappear behind the tree and then run home. Zayn wouldn’t even know how he could do it and would’ve been stuck on it for a while. He would later ask and Liam would lie and life would go on.

“Liam, wait!”

Liam did not wait, he trudged ahead. He was almost at the fence of the Malik’s house. Once he was out of the fence, he was gone. Just as he was getting closer, he tripped on a loose root and fell. Of course he had to catch himself and act like it hurt since he would have no scratches and his knees would’ve probably dented the square concrete walkway.

As he got up after undoing the vine, he was standing face-to-face with Zayn. They both stood their awkwardly. After h e fell, he sort of lost his anger and embarrassment took its place. Zayn seemed like he wanted to laugh, but felt bad for laughing so tried to contain it. Neither could speak, be it from embarrassment or from suppressed laughter. After a minute or two, however, Zayn seemed to compose himself to speak.

“Why are you mad at me?”

Liam made a face as if he’d just been slapped by a stranger. “You’re joking, right? Tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m not joking.” Zayn says and he sounds a little offended.

“You’ve gone mental,” Liam decides. “You leave for five months after we get serious and then you ask why I’m mad at you. You must be mental.”

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I didn’t have a choice?” Zayn shouts. He’s angry now. “Did you not, for one second, think that I _didn’t_ want to leave?” Before Liam can respond, Zayn goes on, in a softer voice.  “I loved our relationship—how close we were getting. I didn’t _ask_ to go to a private academy, Liam. I wanted to stay here with you. But I let my grades slip and I was put into a private school for a semester so I could get my grades up. I begged my parents not to send me away, I did. The last two days here were the worst. I woke up at five A.M. so we could make the two hour drive up to the school so we could “check it out.” Bullshit, they knew they were going to put me there before they even made the call.”

Liam frowned. He was an asshole, a selfish asshole. He didn’t try to see it from Zayn’s point of view. He’d only known that his maybe maybe-not boyfriend was leaving and hadn’t cared enough to give Liam a proper goodbye. “Zayn, I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t. Why would you?” Zayn says bitingly. A few moments later, he lets out a sigh. “I’m sorry,” he says instantly. “I’m being a jerk. I should not have called you selfish.”

“But I am,” Liam says instantly. “I have been this whole time and when I saw you with Louis, I thought--,”

“Wait, you think there is something going on with Louis and I?” Zayn asks, incredulously. “You couldn’t be more wrong. Louis is just a friend of mine that I met at the Academy.”

“You bring friends home to stay with you often?” Liam asks using the same line he’d used when Zayn first invited him to stay over oh so many years ago, with only a little frost to his tone at that. It didn’t mean that he still didn’t like Louis though.

Zayn nods and says in a mock serious voice, “Quite often, actually. But I try to only get the cute ones.”

Liam laughs and Zayn joins in. It seems like them, except it doesn’t. There’s a rift somewhere there and Liam can’t really pinpoint what the rift is or where it began. He just knows that it’s there and that he and Zayn won’t be able to move forward until it’s gone. As it stands, once the laughter died down it was pretty awkward silence. Had this been any other case, though, and they would be sucking one another’s face right about now.

To save the day, Harry comes out of the door. “Your parents are ready to go home, Liam. You ready?”

Liam nods. “Give me a second?” he asks.

Harry gives a slow nod, letting his eyes linger on Zayn before he slips back inside.

“So, are you going to go with your parents to drop him off?” Zayn asks, hands in his pockets and averting meeting Liam’s eyes.

This would be the part where Liam said no, Zayn asked to come over, and then they would make out in the barn until the sun rose the next day and it would be fantastic and several types of wonderful except...

“Harry lives with us now.” Liam tells him, “Has been ever since my parents adopted him almost five months ago.”

Around five months ago, Harry’s dad passed away due to cancer. With his mom’s mentally unstable condition, therefore unfit to be a parent, Harry had nowhere to go. After presenting the problem to his mother and asking Harry if he could stay for a bit, Liam’s parents ended up adopting Harry since he had no one else legally, and he is just like family anyway.

“Oh.” There was shock in Zayn’s tone and expression, as well as relief. The emotions were wiped away so quickly, Liam couldn’t be sure if he imagined it or not. “Cool. How has that been?”

It was the most awkward question Liam had been asked. Which was completely weird seeing as he’s been asked that very same question dozens of times before by various friends. “Umm, it’s good. Harry’s great, except for in the mornings. He’s not bad, but I just... am not a morning person...” Liam trails off because Zayn would know that.

As if sensing where Liam’s memory was going, Zayn too grew quiet and they stood there until Liam’s parents and Harry came out.

“Ready to go, Liam?” Harry asked after bounding down the stairs to stand beside his brother with Louis hot on his trails, but Louis takes his place next to Zayn.

“I’m ready,” Liam says, looking from Zayn to Louis. “Louis, Zayn,” Liam says, extending his hand towards Louis first and giving a firm shake when Louis accepted the offer. When he extends his hand towards Zayn, an electric current passes through his body with Zayn’s touched. Their eyes lock and in that one moment, Liam remembers everything he loved about Zayn and his personality. Zayn was kind of a jerk, but the adorable kind. He had a heart of gold buried under a block of ice and Liam liked to consider himself a furnace.

Zayn seemed to sense it too, and that made Liam shift uncomfortably.  He shook Zayn’s hand and let it go, but he could still feel a tingle of... something. Lust, he thought it was. Lust would explain why Liam was suddenly getting warmer and the atmosphere becoming unbearable.

“See you around, Liam.” Zayn tells him.

“Mhm. Maybe next time we could have desert before the night goes to shit.” Liam grins.

“Now there’s a pleasant thought,” Zayn says, seemingly relaxed finally.

“Bye.” Louis says, thus ruining the moment before he heads inside.

Harry and Liam say their goodbyes to Zayn before waiting for their parents and heading home.

_~***~_

“You’ll never guess what I found out,” Harry starts as soon as they are up the stairs and in Liam’s room.

“Hold on,” Liam cuts in. “Please, please, please let me take a shower and unwind first. I want to hear this, but just not right now.” Truth be told, he didn’t want to hear it at all today, but it was important in the war against Mr. Malik that Liam was so drastically losing.

“Okay,” Harry agrees after a moment. “But it’s a lot. Prepare, Liam, for I am going to blow your mind.”

Liam didn’t doubt that he would, but what he really wanted right now was for the hot water to be working. He was soon rejoicing the fact that the hot water was indeed working—working out the kinks in his back and undoing the tightness in his muscles as he showers and relaxes, letting the steam open his pores.

After a nice, hot shower, Liam feels so, so much better. Tonight’s events took a lot on him mentally and he was pretty damn tired because of it. Physically, he knew he could run a couple marathons and still not be tired. It was an odd sensation to have one’s body ready at all times, but to have the mind weary and groggy due to emotional stress.

He lies down and closes his eyes to let his mind wander and let sleep take him. Just as he closes his eyes, he feels someone standing over him and he sighs. “Alright, Harry, what did you learn?”

“Well first, Louis isn’t really Zayn’s friend. Well, that’s not how it started. Mr. Malik hired Louis to get close to Zayn so he could make some friends while Mr. Malik had an eye on his son at all times. Apparently there is a threat out there; “The Force of Nature” Mr. Malik calls it. It is supposed to have full influence over the elements, including creating natural disasters like storms and tornadoes and things like that, but that’s not even the best part.”

Liam sits up, rubbing his face. He wasn’t getting any sleep tonight, he knew that for sure. With the recent developments, he was probably going to be up all night painting scenarios in his mind of what The Force of Nature was and what it could actually do. Maybe it was a stupid name Mr. Malik gave one of his Malik Corp inventions to that made flowers grow or something.

“I doubt it,” Harry said, seeming a little upset to have him cut off mid fact telling. “Anyway, do you want to know the best part or not?”

“I do.” Liam decided.

“Mr. Malik is working on some type of weapon.”

Liam was now wide awake, more scenarios forming in his mind. “A weapon to do what?” he asks.

“Advance the abilities that kryptonite can grant.” Harry answers.

“This is bad,” Liam sighs.

“I know. Imagine all the people Mr. Malik probably has locked away somewhere with dangerous gifts looking to harm people. Liam, you know we have to do something about this, right? And that means you have to get in at the base of the operations.”

Following where Harry was going, Liam sighed. “You mean I have to get close to Malik through Zayn.”

Harry frowns like he doesn’t like the idea, but then he says, “All is fair in love and war.”


	3. Sleeping With The Enemy...'s Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old flames ignite as Liam finally gets some one on one time with Zayn.

Liam woke up with a funny feeling in his gut. Nausea and something clawed at his insides: guilt. It wasn’t like Liam never lied, it’s just that he’s sort of never lied to a guy he loves to get something out of him. Liam didn’t use people and he didn’t want to start now. But he has to, he reasons, for the good of mankind. For the good of putting that scumbag Malik behind bars, really. And just how Harry expected two teenagers to pull off something that could take down a multibillion dollar C.E.O., he had no idea.

Liam showered and got dressed the normal way, taking his time and doing things he didn’t do every day, like floss and make sure his hair was in check. He looked at the mirror, running his tongue over his teeth and checking his hair. It wasn’t everyday one planned to seduce the son of your enemy. A glance in the mirror and yep, his hair was still cut low. 

He tried to psyche himself up by the power of will and a steady mantra of positive thoughts: You’re not a bad person. You’re potentially saving the world from a madman. He continued to chant the words to himself and pace back and forth for five minutes until he heard Harry’s car about a mile away and gaining fast. Nervous with energy, Liam used his super speed and flew down the lane until Harry’s car came into view where Liam, still using super speed, got inside of the car and strapped on his seatbelt as if he were there the whole time. 

“Shit!” Harry cursed, righting the car from swerving into the oncoming traffic at Liam’s sudden appearance. His eyes were wide, bottle green with panic and a spike of fear. “Can’t you wait for a guy to drop by?” Harry says with an annoyed tone. 

“No.” Liam answers curtly. “So about this getting close to Zayn, business...” 

Harry rolls his eyes. “What’s the problem?” he asks. “You’ve been with Zayn multiple times before this. Why is this so different?” 

“Oh I don’t know,” Liam's heavy on the sarcasm. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m using Zayn to put his father behind bars. How would you handle this position?” 

Harry thinks for a moment as they ride up to the Payne Farm and he puts the car in park. “I’d use my super strength to give Zayn the best dick of his life and then I’d—” 

“Forget I asked.” 

Harry nods and they both get out of the car, making their way back up to Liam’s room where he was not that long ago. 

“What makes you think Zayn even knows anything?” Liam asked once they’re in his room. He’s been pacing the floor, looking for every flaw in the overall plan of making Zayn fall for him again, but on bad terms this time. 

“I don’t,” Harry responds. He takes out a sleek, black, dell laptop and opens it to rest on his knees while he sits on the bed. While waiting for the laptop to warm up, Harry elaborates. “Being close to Zayn will allow you to be in the house. The house where, once in inside, you can find Malik’s computer and,” Harry pulls out a flash drive from his pocket, “put this little baby into it. Open up the files on the drive, download this software onto his computer and the rest is mine from there.” 

Hearing it now makes it not seem so bad, Liam thinks. That thought goes away almost immediately as Harry keeps speaking. “All you have to do is: sneak out of Zayn’s room, grab the keycard that Mr. Malik keeps in his front pocket, and go into his private room to do it. It doesn’t have security cameras. Mr. Malik likes his privacy.” 

Liam was pretty impressed with all the details Harry seemed to know. “How do you know all of this?” he asked. 

“Niall,” Harry answers simply. 

“Horan?” Liam confirms. 

Harry nods. 

“How does he know?” Liam wonders. 

“His father is head security for Malik. He put Niall through so many training exercises and through MMA training. Why is that important, you may be wondering?” Harry doesn’t answer though and instead types something on the laptop. It chimes and he types some more. 

When Liam finally gets that Harry isn’t going to continue talking without being prompted, Liam says, “Well? Why is that important?” 

“Niall hated it. He wants to get back at his father for putting him through it and the kid is a freaking library of Malik Corp info. He’ll be our resource.” 

Liam nods. He’d heard of Niall. He was one of the toughest people at Smallville high and he had a reputation for never losing a fight. Though he never picked on anyone and stayed out of people’s ways, other guys from other schools always ended up challenging him for his reputation. Those were the same guys that always got their ass kicked. “Isn’t he, like, in wrestling or something now?” 

“That and he’s my new assistant at The Torch.” Harry smiled devilishly. “Imagine this: my own personal informant of Malik Corp. giving all the dirty details. How much do I rock?” 

“A lot.” Liam says. Because it’s true, Harry rocks. Liam wouldn’t be where he was without him and he suddenly feels the urge to hug Harry. So he does. 

“What was that for?” Harry asked once Liam pulled back, a bemused expression on his face. 

Liam grinned and said, “Because you rock.” 

Harry grinned and typed a few things into his computer. “Okay! So when you download the file onto the computer, you have to set it up to grant me access.” Harry hands him a paper with prerecorded pass codes and account names. “Enter these as prompted and all should be well so long as you don’t get caught.” 

Liam nods. He could do this easily. “Is that everything?” he asks after pocketing the flash drive. It felt so sinister in his pocket and it made him kind of giddy. He thought about what he had to do and the smile vanished and the feelings turned sour once more; made Liam nauseous. 

“That’s everything,” Harry confirmed, typing away on the computer without looking up. 

Taking a breath, Liam nodded. “Right,” he said. “I guess I’ll just... go seduce Zayn now...” 

Harry looks up then and frowns, realizing that this must be pretty hard for Liam. “Okay, think of it at a new angle. You’re not seducing Zayn to win a war between you in his father. You’re reconfirming and or establishing your relationship with him and using the perks of that relationship—like access to the house—to aide yourself and many others against a world where Malik gets what he wants.” 

Well when he put it like that, Liam almost felt born to do it. “Thanks. I guess that does help, a little.” 

“Great. Now go on, we don’t have all day. 

Liam nods and makes his way over to the Malik’s residence. He walks, taking time to clear his head. It had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with his feelings for Zayn. Have they changed? Did Zayn love Louis now? Liam was a wreck of nerves by the time he was on the Malik’s porch. Before he could lose his nerve, he pushed the doorbell. 

“I’ll get it!” A voice called from within the house. Seconds later the door opened and Louis stepped out onto the porch, not letting Liam even as much as glance into the house. “May I help you?” Louis asks with coldness to his tone. 

“Is Zayn here?” Liam asks, avoiding Louis’ eyes. He feels nervous all of a sudden, getting the impression that Louis can see straight through him and what he’s there to do. 

“Yes.” Louis answers, but doesn’t offer up any more information. 

Obviously he doesn’t want Liam around and that sort of pisses him off a bit. “Can I speak to him?” 

Louis shakes his head. “He’s busy. Sorry.” He sounds anything but. 

“Lou!” Zayn calls from inside the house. “Who is that at the door?” 

Liam arches a brow and Louis glares at him. “What’s your name again?” 

“Liam,” Liam tells him, though he’s sure Zayn knows. 

“Is there anything you want me to tell him? I don’t think he’ll be able to come to the door just now.” Louis looks like he could give a shit what Liam had to say, as if each moment he stood there was a moment of his life that could’ve been better spent scraping dog poop. 

“Just that I stopped by,” Liam says in a civil manner. “And that he can call me at any time.” 

Louis arches a brow, making Liam’s comment seem desperate. “Is that all?” The way he asked implied he didn’t really care. 

“That’s it,” Liam says, being patient. He didn’t think he’d get close to Zayn for getting angry with Louis, whoever he was. 

“Great. You have a good day.” Louis said. He didn’t mean it. 

Liam turned to go, but his super hearing decided to surprise Liam by listening in on the conversation in the house. 

_“Who was that?” Zayn asks sounding breathless._

_“Liam,” Louis answered coolly, as if the mere mention of his name is an offense._

_“What?” Zayn says surprised. “Why didn’t you let me talk to him?” Liam hears some glass break. It sounds like a window._

_“Calm down, Zayn,” Louis plead. “I couldn’t let him interrupt your...” Louis trails off and goes quiet._

_“Lou?” Zayn asks, confused. A few seconds pass and Zayn mutters “shit”, like he’s used to Louis cutting off midsentence all the time._

_A few moments pass and Louis makes a sound halfway between a gasp and a groan. “Fuck. That hurt.”_

_“What’d you see?” Zayn asks anxiously, like he’s expecting something._

_“Liam’s still at the door.”Louis announces._

_“What?” Zayn asks, surprised. There’s some shuffling that sounds like feet being stuffed into shoes and clothes thrown on in haste._

_“Zayn, wait!” Louis calls, getting up off of what Liam assumes is Zayn’s bed by the bedsprings he hears creaking._

Liam stops listening then. He’s supposed to be back at home by now, not still outside the door. He wasn’t even entirely sure why he was still outside of the door either, to be honest. He could’ve heard the same conversation just as fine from his bedroom. But he stayed. Instead of running fast, Liam takes off towards the gate like he was just leaving. 

Just as he reaches the gate, the door opens. 

“Liam!” Zayn calls, bounding out of the house and down the walkway. He’s sweating and breathless and he looks a little adorable with his quiff imploding on itself by the sweat. “Hey, man. What’re you doing here?” 

Liam looks over at Louis hovering by the door. “I could ask you the same thing,” Liam tells him. “I heard you were busy.” 

Zayn looks over to Louis and chuckles. “Kind of, but it can wait. What’s up?” 

Liam saw the opportunity and he wanted to snatch it. But he had to play it cool, like he was just Liam. Not a spy, just Liam. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t mind. I can come back later.” 

“Nah,” Zayn denies. “It’s totally cool. Plus, you’re already here.” 

Liam nods, unable to find fault in that logic. “Well, I sort of got this nasty craving for sweets. Didn’t get dessert last night and my sweet tooth is coming back to haunt me. I was going to ask if you wanted to... Well I don’t know, honestly. Hang out, maybe?” 

Zayn looked back over to Louis as if debating something. Whatever it was seemed to be in Liam’s favor. “Sure, come on in.” 

Liam grinned; the one Zayn loved, and followed him back into the house. Passing through the door meant passing by Louis who still hadn’t moved from his spot. Liam could feel Louis’ glare penetrating the back of his head, but he remained calm. 

“Zayn, can I talk to you for a second?” Louis asked, shutting the door and speaking with a forced calm. “It’s pretty urgent.” 

Zayn smiles, also with forced patience. “It can’t be that important, Louis.” 

“It is,” Louis denies. 

“Is it life or death?” Zayn wants to know. 

“Not necessarily.” Louis answers and Liam can tell he knows he’s losing this argument. 

“Then it’s not that important.” Zayn concedes, turning his attention back to Liam as if that tense, layered conversation hadn’t just transpired. “Remember your way to the kitchen? I think we’ve got thirty one flavors of ice cream.” 

Louis grumbles something angrily, grabbing his jacket off the coat rack and storming out of the door, slamming it closed on the way out. Liam ignored him and responded to Zayn. “No way,” he said, sounding impressed. He was, kind of. He knew the Malik’s had very expensive things like cars, boats, and unnecessary property, but nothing like Ice Cream. He pictured pastries imported straight from Paris. 

“Way.” Zayn tells him, sounding proud to have made Liam smile, or that he had thirty-one flavors. Whichever it was, Liam couldn’t tell. 

Liam noticed that Louis had left the property as he follows Zayn into the kitchen and he was sort of grateful for that now. He could finally have some alone time with just Zayn. No one else. 

“What flavor do you want?” Zayn asks as he walks over to the industrial sized fridge. Liam wasn’t sure if it was actually an industrial fridge. He didn’t even know if such a thing existed, and if it did, what did it look like? He wasn’t entirely sure, but Zayn’s refrigerator was _huge_. 

Liam thought for a moment. “Cookies N’ Cream,” he settled on eventually. He watched as Zayn pulled out two white bowls, an ice cream scooper and grabbed a carton of what Liam assumed was Cookies N’ Cream. Zayn carefully scooped an equally generous amount into each bowl before putting the ice cream away, grab two spoons and heads back over to Liam and pass him a bowl. 

“Bon appétit,” Zayn says with a French accent before digging in his own. 

“Thanks.” Liam says before him, too, digs into his ice cream. It’s delicious and cool refreshing as Liam swallows. “Louis seems like a ball of sunshine,” Liam finds himself saying. 

Zayn laughs. “Yeah, he’s very bright. Energetic, really, like the energizer bunny.” 

Liam gave him a look. They must be talking about two different Louis’s, he thinks. “Is your father home?” Liam asks, trying to be casual. “I saw his car out in the driveway, but I haven’t heard from him.” 

Zayn looks up from his ice cream. “Nah, he went to play with a friend. They took a town car.” Zayn explained. 

“So we have the house to ourselves?” Liam asks, letting his voice drop a little so Zayn could catch his implications. 

Zayn freezes where he’s standing—spoon in his mouth, head down but eyes looking up to meet Liam’s—as he absorbs Liam’s meaning. He pulls the spoon out of his mouth, swallows his ice cream. “I guess we do.” 

Electricity passes through them as their eyes meet. The wind stirs outside causing tree branches to scrape against the window and add to the sound of Liam’s and Zayn’s breathing and racing hearts. Then tension in the room grows as they continue to sit there and stare at one another, shifting uncomfortably every few seconds or so. Eventually they both looked away, the awkward sexual tension becoming too intense to keep eye contact. 

Liam could hear Zayn’s heart beating rapidly. He’s sure it has nothing to do with whatever Zayn was doing before he came over. He could also hear his own heart pounding as loud as a drum in his chest, amazed that Zayn didn’t hear it as well. They were both silently eating their ice cream. 

“Cool,” Liam says and continues eating his ice cream as if he weren’t affected. 

“What do you want to do then?” Zayn asks coolly, pretending not to be affected as well. 

Liam shrugs, still feigning being unaffected but so very turned on. “Whatever you want to do, I guess.” 

“I just redid the sheets on my bed. Want to see?” Zayn asks. His voice is forcibly restrained from sounding too urgent or too pushy. 

Up close and personal, Liam thinks. “Sure,” he says cool and collected. 

Three seconds pass and then the two of them are up out of their seats in an instant, like old times. They bound through the kitchen--leaving their bowls to deal with later--and up the stairs. On the landing, Liam stops looks down the hall to where Zayn’s room was. He notices a door at the opposite end of the hall on the left that hadn’t been there before. The door is onyx black and has no doorknob, merely a little slit that a keycard could fit into underneath the space where the doorknob is supposed to be. 

Liam squint his eyes, attempting to see what was behind the door, but to his surprise, he finds it’s lined with lead. He can’t see through it. 

“That’s my dad’s office,” Zayn says. “It’s the new one. He says the old one was too impersonal so he moved here. I think it’s because I’m back, but I have a pretty big ego.” 

“How big is it?” Liam asks, turning back to Zayn. He wasn’t sure what propped that flirtatious question, but it captured Zayn’s attention and made him more urgent than before. Liam considered it a win. 

“I’ll show you,” Zayn says, taking Liam’s hand and pulls him towards the opposite end of Mr. Malik’s room. Zayn closes the door behind them and then leans against it, taking Liam in: his big brown eyes, low cut hair, and tight fitting jeans and shirt that seemed likely to rip every time Liam moved. 

Liam stands in the center of Zayn’s room and it’s just as he remembered it. He’s not oblivious to the attention he’s getting from Zayn, but it just doesn’t feel right. He doesn’t want to go there until they have actually decided that they were going out. “Are you seeing anyone?” Liam asks as he walks over to the bed. 

“I thought we had this conversation last night?” Zayn asked as he stepped away from the door, kicking off his shoes as he made his way over to the bed to sit next to Liam. 

“We did. About Louis,” Liam clarifies. “But what about anyone else?” 

“Nope,” Zayn says. “No one else.” 

Liam can’t tell if he’s lying and if he is then he is very good at it. “Oh,” he says. 

Zayn nods and leans in, taking Liam’s face in his hand and planting a small, chaste kiss onto his lips. 

Warm, soft, firm, and delicious, Liam thinks as he parts his lips to suck Zayn’s tongue into his mouth. They kiss for a while, fire lapping at Liam’s cheek and his neck. Blood rushed south, uncomfortable. Zayn, using the palm of his hand, applied a little pressure to Liam’s cock to give it some relief and Liam groans. 

Clothes fly in every direction as Zayn and Liam tear at one another. Months of built up tension and frustration and angst and worry evaporated and suddenly, there was no distance between them in any sense of the word. Flesh against flesh, lips against whatever available patch of skin they could attach themselves to. Liam knew this Zayn, the one that caressed him tenderly and made Liam feel loved, and he was definitely not evil. Suddenly it felt like Zayn had never left, like they had never been separated: they were close. 

The wind outside is definitely picking up; Liam can see it through the windows: trees nearly swaying over with the force of the wind. Meanwhile, the sun was still shining. Odd, he thought. But then he wasn’t thinking about nature or anything of that sort as Zayn’s lips attacked the back of his neck, lips warm and electrifying. 

And then Zayn slid a wet digit inside of him and Liam gasped at familiar intimacy “Fucking missed you so much,” Zayn murmured before nibbling on Liam’s ear. “I thought I was going to go crazy without you, Baby.” After sliding another finger alongside the first, Zayn says, “Always so tight for me.” 

Liam was actually _always_ tight after he and Zayn finished. His body healed so rapidly, Zayn would have to end up stretching him again if they wanted to have another go the same night. It wasn’t a bad thing, Liam thought. Zayn loved it, like taking an experienced virgin for the first time each time. It was sort of like their first time each time. 

Liam listened and took it. He loved Zayn’s dirty talk; it always made him feel so... cherished. So loved, to know how he affects Zayn. He also loved how Zayn’s fingers stretched him open, the slight burn did nothing to tamper Liam’s erection, because he knew what came after it and that got him harder than anything. “I missed you, too,” Liam moaned, pressing back against Zayn’s fingers sliding in and out of him. 

“’M so glad to hear you say that, Baby,” Zayn whispered sounding relieved. He adds another slick finger and carefully, slowly, and tenderly opens Liam up to him. “Missed waking up to you on the weekends, and fucking you all night long.”As if to emphasize his point, Liam feels Zayn take his fingers away and slowly ease his cock inside. 

Liam relaxes into and slowly pushes himself back until Zayn bottoms out. Zayn’s hands slide up the sheets until they’re intertwined with Liam’s and he’s breathing heavily, trying desperately hard not to come too fast. 

They both do anyways. 

_~***~_

“Are you serious?” Harry screamed, exasperated. 

Liam had just finished telling him the story in explicit detail of what he and Zayn were up to. He’d ask and Liam didn’t want Harry to actually _see_ what happened, so he’d come as close as he could get. 

“Well, I mean... Was that not the plan?” Liam asked, trying to be cute. With the look Harry fixed him with, Liam knew he hadn’t succeeded. “Okay, but I don’t see the big deal. Zayn and I are kind of an item.” 

Harry looks confused for a moment before he glances at Liam. “You think I’m upset because you didn’t get into the room?” Liam nods and Harry laughs. “Well a little, but no. You think Louis is psychic?” 

Liam gives him a look. Out of everything he said and found—which is admittedly not much, but come on?--, Harry notices psychic. 

“Hey,” Harry said in a defensive tone. “You’ve got to know your enemies. This is great. He doesn’t know that we know. Or does he know now because of his psychicness?” Harry wondered, looking around as if there were hidden cameras everywhere. "It just means that things didn’t go according to schedule and now you have to go the day after tomorrow.” 

Liam asked, “Why not tomorrow?” He really wanted to see Zayn. Liam’s departure had been slightly awkward. After a great, if not hasty fuck, Liam got up and left like a hoe. He felt bad for doing that to Zayn, he wanted to cuddle. But he also had to remember why he was here. 

“Because tomorrow we will be heading over to Niall’s and getting information on a warehouse where I think Malik may be storing the weapon,” Harry explains. “We’ll need you there.” 

Liam agrees to be there and they no longer talk after that. It’s late. As Liam prepares to go to bed, he notices Harry’s shoes in the corner, decorated in fresh looking mud. “You went out today?” Liam asked. 

Harry didn’t look up from whatever he was doing. The soft ping told Liam that Harry was instant messaging someone. 

“Who is that?” Liam asked as he lay down. 

“Oh no one,” Harry said dismissively. 

Liam had a feeling he knew who it was.


	4. Let Me Rescue You, And Then We'll Explode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam and Harry meet up with Niall to go explore a warehouse. What they find what they get there is so much more than they expected.

Liam doesn’t run as fast as he normally would, seeing as he has Harry on his back, but he does run inhumanly fast. Harry held on for dear life, not letting go at all in the fifteen seconds it took them to get from home to Niall’s house. It only took that long because Liam didn’t know where he was going, and he had to stop every so often and wait for the GPS to catch up.

When they first arrived at Niall’s house, the first thing that Liam thought about Niall’s house was, “Does he really live here?” 

It was a large, two story modern home with perfect green grass and a white picket fence; the ideal American home. Except for the Irish flag that was standing tall and proud in the front lawn, blowing freely in the wind. It wasn’t exactly the place Liam would go to do shady, back door business deals. He felt like someone should be baking cookies, not doing dirty work. 

“Yep, this is it,” Harry announced, eying the house from his position doubled over. He was waiting for his organs to catch up. Pulling out his phone, Harry checked the address one last time and showed it to Liam. After Liam was satisfied, Harry simply let himself in the fence as if he visited it all the time. 

Liam doesn’t move, stuck at the gate’s entrance. He gives Harry a worried look. 

Harry rolls his eyes at Liam’s worried expression. “What? He’s expecting us, isn’t he?” 

What if someone calls the cops and accuses them of breaking in? What if Niall had the day’s mixed up and his badass security dad came out with a rifle and started shooting at Harry, but Liam had to jump in front of him and take the bullet thus revealing his secret to the world! 

“Stop being dramatic,” Harry chastised. He held the gate open. “Look, Liam, we’re already here. Anything he throws at us, we can handle.” 

Liam knows he’s being ridiculous, but he can’t help it. “Fine,” he says and walks up past the fence. With Harry by his side, they make their way to the door. 

Harry knocks and a dog barks and rushes to the door, clawing at it eagerly. 

A young voice with an Irish accent commands, “Down, laddy!” and the dog whines and scurries away from the door and back to the source of the voice. “Who is it?” The voice demands as footsteps echo nearer. 

“Niall, it’s me, Harry,” Harry called. “Remember me?” 

Niall was at the door now, peering through the screen at the two at his door. The dog moved noisily behind him. “Who’s he?” 

Harry turned to Liam as if trying to explain his presence. “This is Liam, he’s with me. He can help.” 

Niall looks Liam over, sizing him up before turning sparkling blue eyes back to Harry. “Come in,” he says and opens the door. 

The moment they step through the door, the dog—an Irish Setter—is attacking them with affection. Liam bends down and pets the dog. Harry stays away from it. 

“He’s not going to bite,” Liam tells him. 

“You don’t know that for sure,” Harry shoots back. 

“Are you quite done?” Niall asks rhetorically. “I thought we were here for business.” 

“We are,” Harry says immediately. “What do you have on the warehouse?” 

“Nothing,” Niall answers as he sits down at a nice, expensive looking desk. 

Harry shakes his head. “Nothing?” he asks, confused and upset. “What do you mean nothing?” 

“Literally nothing,” Niall answers. “It doesn’t exist.” 

“No,” Harry denied. “That’s impossible. It has to exist somewhere. I got the information straight from the source.” 

“Well whatever _did_ exist doesn’t anymore,” Niall explains. He pulls up Google Maps and types in an address. “See? Nothing even comes up on radar.” 

“What do we do now?” Liam asks, seeing his hopes go out the door. 

“Now we head to that address,” Harry says, pulling out his phone. He pulls up his navigation app and types in the necessary information. 

“Then I’m coming with you,” Niall says. 

“No you’re not,” Liam’s quick to deny. He couldn’t handle it if this person got hurt because of him. 

“Yes I am,” Niall informs him. “If there is any information on Malik Corp. that I don’t know about, I am going to find out and I dare you to try and stop me.” 

Liam could. He thought about it, actually, but he wasn’t going to. “Fine,” he reluctantly agrees. 

Harry beams, showing his phone with the navigation app on the screen. “Got it,” Harry says. 

“Well let’s go,” Liam says. He begins moving towards Harry but stops when his brother backs away from him. “What?” 

“What about Niall?” 

Niall laughs. “How are you planning on getting there? Running?” 

Harry answers, “Yes. How did you know?” 

Liam was tempted to let him find his own way there, but he sighed. Could he really, safely carry the two of them? Of course he could. “Fine,” Liam snaps. “Harry on my back, Niall come here, we’re going bridal style.” 

Niall arches a brow. “You’re both insane. I’m driving.” 

Liam groaned, turning to look over at Harry. 

Harry sighs, “What could you possibly need that we don’t have?” 

“A run of the outer perimeter, access to their cameras, as well as an infrared on the building,” Niall answers. 

Harry rolls his eyes. “I think we got it covered.” 

Niall glances between the two of them before turning his attention to Harry. “You never told me, exactly, what you could do.” 

“Many things,” Harry answered vaguely. 

Niall folded his arms. 

Harry sighed. “I can read minds.” 

“No way,” Niall murmured. “Prove it.” 

“No.” 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“I meant: No, Liam does not have a twin sister.” 

Niall blushed and spluttered, turning his attention towards Liam, “No, not that I--,” 

“I’m flattered and all, but can we go?” 

In the end, they took the normal route. They had to wait a few minutes while Niall changed into his all black gear complete with black cargo pants, a black t-shirt, and black combat boots. He even had the two black lines under his eyes. When they arrived at the place, it turns out that there actually was a warehouse. It was seemingly abandoned. 

The warehouse’s windows were broken and the gate keeping everyone out was a twisted pile of junk several feet away, like someone had run straight through with an armored car. 

Niall rolled to a stop several feet away from the entrance to the warehouse, leaving the car outside of the property for a quicker get away. Harry's idea. 

“Impossible,” Harry denied as he climbed out of the front seat of the car. 

Liam followed Niall out of the car and looked inside of the warehouse using his x-ray vision. He saw scattered papers, hanging wires, and upturned desks. “Whoever was here was sure ready to go in a hurry.” 

“Do you think they know we were coming?” Niall asked, cupping a hand to his forehead to block the sun’s rays from blinding him whilst he tried to peer into the building. 

Harry shakes his head and says, “There was no way they could have known that we were coming unless...” Harry turned towards Liam arching a meaningful brow. 

Liam thought for a moment before realization hit him, followed by confusion, concluding with denial. “What you think Louis could’ve told Malik? We don’t even know for sure if he is psychic.” 

“Well how else do you explain it, Liam?” Harry demanded. Niall looked at Liam as well, waiting for an explanation. 

Liam shrugs, racking his brain for other possibilities. He says finally, “Maybe they bugged your house, Niall? Tracked a signal back to you or something?” 

“Well,” Niall considered for a moment but then shook his head. “Nope,” he says with complete assurance. “I’d know if someone were tracing or hacking me.” 

“But it’s not completely impossible, right?” Liam argued. 

Niall shrugged. “I suppose not, for arguments sake.” 

Liam turned to Harry with joyous relief, “See?” 

“But it didn’t happen,” Harry shot back. 

Niall sighs, “It doesn’t matter how it happened, what matters is that it happened. Let’s just go inside and take a look around, we’ll never get anything done by just standing out here. 

Liam and Harry agreed and followed Niall into the building. All the windows were smashed, the walls marked, and small flames feeding on papers and wooden desks in some room. Niall grabbed an extinguisher and put them out. As their search into the building deepened, they found one door at the end of a long hall towards the west side of the building. 

One had to wonder why this door was on the secluded side of the building and what it could be hiding. Had it been something that whoever was here missed, or had it been left behind purposefully because it was too unstable to take? The door resembled that of a bank vault. It was large, silver, and approximately weighed a ton or two. 

Liam pulled on the handle and the door snapped off. “What?” Liam asked at Niall’s look of astonishment. 

“Nothing,” Niall replied. He went on to murmur, “Just never gonna piss you off...”

Inside there were vials, vials, and more vials filled with sparkling clear liquid inside small square boxes. Shelf on top of shelf of the little boxes filled with vials. A nearly endless supply, really. The fluorescent lighting from above made the liquid take on a sort of eerie blue aura that seemed to glow from _within_ the liquid. 

“What is this stuff?” Niall asked as he entered the room and examined the shelves. 

Maybe if one of them had been more focused, Liam or Harry would’ve heard the sound of a car approaching, or the chaotic, panicked thoughts of the two beings in said car. But they didn’t. So Niall continued to explore and made the mistake of picking up one of the vials. As soon as he did, the room was flashing with warning sounds of self destruction and red lights. White fog began flooding the room from three vents, one on each wall, and began freezing everything it touched instantly. 

A second later, Liam was a blur of action. He managed to grab Niall and Harry and move them out of the building, while still having time to go back into the building to grab a box of vials off of one of the shelves. Once he was back outside, a safe distance away from the explosion range with Harry and Niall, he turned at the sound of a car approaching. 

Harry stealthy grabbed the box from Liam’s hands and took them into his own. With his eyes, Harry let it be known to Liam that he was going to illusion himself so that it appeared he had no boxes. 

“Can you make this go away too?” Niall asked, gesturing towards the mess of burning building behind them. 

Harry shook his head and explained, “The box is easier because I have to camouflage what I want carefully. Get the whole picture, so to speak.” After that, Harry stared at the box until it disappeared, hidden from the minds of those around him. 

The car slowed to a stop several feet away from them and Zayn and Louis stepped out of the car. They took the time to survey the building and then the three boys that seem to have no scratches on them. 

“What happened?” Louis demanded. He eyed Harry with confusion. 

“Are you okay?” Zayn asked instead. Concern wafted off of him in very large doses, especially in Liam’s direction. 

“Wish we knew,” Harry said, answering Louis. He looked at Liam, prompting him to answer the second question. 

“We’re fine,” Liam lied. “We heard the warnings and got out just in time.” 

Louis made a sound of disbelief and asked, “You got out just in time but ended up all the way over here?” 

Now that Liam thought about it, it did seem pretty far out of the blast range. He just wanted his friends to be safe and out of harm’s way. Though it didn’t harm him, he could feel the heat of the fire on his skin as the building went up in smoke, before he made it back to them. He didn’t want them anywhere near that flame. It was an obvious lie and everyone knew it, but for whatever reason, Liam kept lying. “Yup,” he replied. 

“As long as you’re okay,” Zayn offered, but he looked like he wanted to know the whole story as well. 

Harry drew attention to himself by telling Zayn, “We’re fine.” 

“What’s in your hands?” Louis asked. 

Harry, Liam, and Niall froze at once. There was no possible way that Louis would be able to see the boxes in Harry’s hands. As if to prove this, Zayn gave Louis a confused look. “What boxes?” 

Louis looked up and met Harry’s eyes. With a little suspicion mixed with fear, Louis asked, “What are you?” 

Harry continued to stare at Louis in concentration. He probably didn’t even hear what Louis had asked. 

“Don’t I know you?” Zayn asked suddenly, eying Niall. “Horan, right? Your father works for our company.” 

Niall nods and smiles tightly. “That he does,” he says as he steps forward and extends his hand. “Niall Horan, at your service,” he introduces. 

As Zayn reached for Niall’s hand, Harry suddenly winces and grabs his head in pain. By Zayn’s side, Louis is doing the same thing. Louis is the first to recover, shaking his head and staring horrifically at the two hands about to join together. 

“No, Zayn!” Louis called, extending his arm as if to pull his friend back by the force of will. 

“Niall, don’t!” Harry warned, mimicking Louis’ horrified look and stance. He turned to Liam, ordering him to stop Niall but Liam didn’t know what to do. Before he could do anything it was already too late. Niall and Zayn had grabbed hands. 

The moments their hands wrapped around one another, Zayn dropped to his knees in aching pain. Niall’s eyes widened in horror and he attempted to pull his hand back, but it was like their palms were glued together with industrial glue. Zayn continued to ache and scream, Niall continued to try and dislodge the two of them from one another. No avail. 

Liam was afraid to do anything. He could rip them apart, but that would risk someone loosing an arm. He could tell Harry wanted to help too, wanted to do something but neither him or Louis could do anything but watch helplessly as whatever that’s happening, happens. 

The wind picks up, much too fast and too strong to be natural. Storm clouds roll in from seemingly nowhere. Dark, threatening clouds blanketed the sky and let lightning dance around between them in flashes that seemed almost rhythmic. The ground began to rumble like an earthquake, but instead of the ground simply cracking and splintering, shards of earth shot out of the ground and pointed in every direction. 

“What’s going on?” Liam demanded over the howling of the wind. 

“Niall is taking Zayn’s power and Zayn’s fighting him for it!” Harry answered back, not taking his eyes off the two of them. 

“What is Zayn’s power?” Liam called. What could cause such chaos? 

It was Louis who answered this time instead of Harry, his voice barely audible above the wind. “Zayn has power over nature!” 

Proving this point, lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled scarily close to them. Rain began pouring down in thick, icy splashes that felt more like hail than water. Weeds began growing out of the ground, wrapping around Zayn and Niall, winding its way through their fingers. The wind howled, lighting flashed, the ground rumbled, and then the vines tugged at both Niall and Zayn, ripping them apart from one another. 

As soon as they were separated Harry set the box down and stepped in between the two fallen bodies, letting a hand hover in each of their directions. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Seconds later, nature was completely calm as if nothing had ever happened. The clouds were parting, releasing the sun once again. The only thing left was the smoking building, deformed rocks, vines, and three _very_ confused boys. 

“Are they okay?” Liam asked. His voice, though soft, sounded very loud in all the silence. 

“They’re both in a comatose state right now,” Harry answered back, checking both of them physically. The two of them lapsed into silence again. 

“Oh no,” Louis whimpered, voice cracking and splintering the silence like water through ice. It seemed he was on the verge of tears after processing everything. “What have I let happen? Zayn’s lost his power... Malik is going to murder me.” 

“What?” Liam asked, giving Louis his full attention. “What does Malik have to do with any of this?” 

Louis looked up at Liam, not answering. Before Liam could do anything, Louis clutched his hands to his head and screamed in agony. 

_“Harry, stop!”_ Liam demanded telepathically, kneeling by Louis’ side. 

“I know what I’m doing!” Harry countered verbally, continuing whatever method of torture he seemed to be implementing on Louis. 

“Harry!” Liam called. The screams continued. _“HARRY!”_ The screaming stopped and Liam looked down to check on Louis. He was unconscious. 

_“What do you think you’re doing?”_ Liam demanded after gently setting Louis’ head on the ground. 

_“I was getting information,”_ Harry snapped. _“He wasn’t going to confess so I forced the information from his mind. I didn’t try to hurt him, I swear.”_

Liam continued looking at the unconscious bodies skeptically. 

Harry sighed and further elaborated, _“Someone was teaching him how to try and block me and I used only necessary force to get past his defenses. I know everything Malik told him.”_

_“Alright,”_ Liam accepted. _“Let’s get everyone back home and we’ll deal with it there.”_

Harry nodded and walked over to Zayn’s unconscious body and grabbed the keys to that car. 

Liam used his speed to put everyone in Harry’s car but gave him a confused look when Harry handed Liam Harry’s set of keys instead of Zayn’s. 

_“So you can get them both inside the barn without being seen whilst I park Zayn’s car at his house,”_ Harry explained. 

Liam nodded, accepting that. _“But why not just take Zayn’s car home with us?”_

Harry smiled, telling him, _“So if someone reports them missing, no one can say they’d been by here.”_

Liam laughed. _“Well at least some good came out of this.”_

“Yeah what’s that?” Harry asked, pausing with the door open to Zayn’s car to turn to look at Liam.

“We know for sure that Louis is psychic.”

Harry glared at him. _“That’s not funny.”_

Liam continued smiling as he got in the car, effectively ignoring Harry’s glare. He still responded with, _”It’s kind of funny.”_

_”Maybe a little.”_

_”That’s what I thought.”_


	5. Mislead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four super powered teenagers in one barn with a pissed off Niall and a powerless Zayn. Tensions run high when something about Niall's life is revealed.
> 
> A/N: I cannot BELIEVE it's been a MONTH since I've posted to this story!! *sighs* I'm sorry for the wait, things have been hectic on end. This chapter is shorter than the rest and the next should be the last and longest to make up for the length of time I took between posting.

As planned, Liam took Harry’s car back home and parked it. He got all three boys from the car to the farmhouse without running into his parent’s once. He wanted to go change as he could feel bits of earth from the storm earlier in every crevice of skin. Looking out the window, Liam noticed that the truck was gone which meant his mom was out, which meant that he could pop inside, grab some clothes, shower and be back before anyone noticed.

_Don’t you dare, Liam._

Liam’s eyes widen at Harry’s unexpected voice in his head. He rolled his eyes but stayed put, watching out for the unconscious trio taking residency on his futon. It could not have been any more than ten minutes had passed before Harry came bounding up the stairs to the barn. Liam blurs out of view and suddenly reappears before Harry, startling the curly haired one. 

“It’s about time,” Liam said, sagging with relief. “I’ve been going out of my mind over here!” 

Harry winces, but raises a finger to silence Liam when he sees that his brother is about to apologize. “No you didn’t hurt my feelings, I keep getting a sharp... ache in my head. It’s taking a lot to keep those three down as much as I am, but one of them keeps fighting back and he’s getting really good at it.” 

Liam gives the three brainless bodies a glance. He wonders how they could be doing much of anything when they looked like they couldn’t do much of anything. “Well now Niall has Zayn’s powers? How long do you think that’ll last?” 

Harry shrugs, halfway turning back towards the bodies to get a glance. “It’s hard to say,” he says as he walks over to Liam and they begin pacing. “I didn’t even know Niall could do such a thing. Come to think of it, I should’ve known something up the first time I visited him.” 

“What do you mean?” Liam asks, stopping in his pacing to give Harry his attention. 

Harry stops to and faces Liam to explain. “Before I met Niall I could hear him loud and clear like anyone else, right?” Liam nods agreeably so Harry continues, “I didn’t notice it at first, but the longer I was there, the harder it became to hear his thoughts before I suddenly... couldn’t anymore.” 

Liam arched a brow, trying to picture the image his brother was painting. “But Niall got Zayn’s powers after they shook hands.” 

Harry shakes his head. “Niall got Zayn’s powers after their skin touched.” 

Liam shrugs, unfazed. “It’s the same thing so—,”

“No, think about it, Li,” Harry interrupts animatedly. Pieces of his theoretical puzzle begin to form in his mind. “After Zayn and Niall went down, who had enough power to erase the storm? Something like that doesn’t just go away.” 

Liam thinks about it, “It only made sense that with Zayn being unconscious, his ability to manipulate the weather would sort of is down with him.” 

“Right,” Harry agrees quickly. “But Zayn no longer had his powers by the time that was over.” 

“So when Niall wakes up, he’s going to keep Zayn’s powers?” 

Harry nods and Liam breathes a curse. It was too damn complicated. This was not how things were supposed to be with Zayn back in town now and yet... 

“What’re we supposed to do with three comatose patients?” Liam asks, gesturing towards the three bodies. 

Harry rolls his eyes before turning to examine said “patients.” Liam had them all propped up on the couch, though their bodies sagged with a lifelessness akin to death. “First, we have to wake one of them up at a time. Trouble is: who do we wake up first?” Harry asked, turning back around to face Liam. 

Liam was about to answer before his eyes widened and he looked past Harry to get a view of the couch. Harry turned, following Liam’s eyes and nearly jumped ten feet out of his skin. “Jesus Christ!” 

Louis blinks around the room, disoriented for a moment but when the room stops spinning, he’s on his feet instantly in a defensive position. “What have you done?” Louis demands, face contorted into anger. He glances down towards Zayn’s unconscious body, trying to gauge the situation before acting, Liam guesses. 

“It’s not what it looks like,” Liam says quickly and Harry gives him a look. “What?” Liam asks, puzzled. 

“I didn’t wake him up,” Harry tells him. 

Liam and Harry both turn towards Louis who was giving them both a satisfied smirk. “I wasn’t hired just because of my pretty face,” Louis offers as an explanation and nothing more. He’s still in his defensive stance, probably trying to work out which of the two he could take down, but he must’ve realized between Harry and Liam it was impossible and so he put his arms down. “Does somebody want to tell me why three men are in some stranger’s basement?” 

“In our defense,” Harry pipes up before Liam can answer, “Zayn has been up here a number of times on that very couch.” 

Liam and Louis both give Harry an ‘are you kidding me?’ face. “Not the time, Harry,” Liam told him before turning back to Louis. “What do you know about Zayn’s abilities?” 

Louis fidgets, like he doesn’t want to answer. For a second it seems as though his resolve is going to crack, but then he says nothing. 

“Not much,” Harry supplies in the silence following Liam’s question. “Malik only told Louis enough to keep them both out of trouble, and gave him enough instruction to keep Zayn’s temper down.” 

“Stay out of my head,” Louis snaps, glaring at Harry. 

Harry ignores him, continues doing whatever he’s doing because he doesn’t seem to have heard Liam. “What’s project Dark Cloud?” Harry asks instead. 

Louis’ eyes widen a fraction before he composes himself. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Louis says coolly. 

Harry squints his eyes, trying to dig deeper into Louis’ head, but it’s as if he suddenly hit a wall. Pain blasts through his head and he falls to the ground. Liam rushes to check on Harry and at the same time Louis rushes over to Zayn. 

Zayn and Niall gasp awake simultaneously, scrambling away from one another quickly. Without warning, Zayn’s hands start flying and everyone tenses, waiting for another storm for Zayn to unleash but nothing happens. 

Niall stares in bewilderment at Zayn before recognition dawns his features. Hesitantly he raises a hand, and the air in the barn picks up instantly, wind whipping through the place and tumbling bales of hay. Seconds later Niall lowers his hand with an expression mixed between excitement and fear on his face. “Whoa,” he murmurs and looks over to Zayn. 

Liam’s eyes follow and then back to Niall. “Give Zayn his abilities back, Niall,” Liam demands. 

“No way,” Niall breathes. “This... This is what your father has been hiding, isn’t it?” Niall demands as he turns his attention to Zayn. 

Zayn ends his glare for one of confused exasperation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Give me back my powers, you prick.” 

“Niall, what are you talking about?” Liam asks, stepping forward with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. Despite that Liam was pretty much the perfect picture of innocence, Niall stepped back anyways. 

“My father’s missing,” Niall announces and everyone in the room goes still. Niall meets eyes with all of them but his eyes stay on Zayn. “My father used to work for your company. On his last day, he went missing. Where is he?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zayn insists eyeing Niall warily. 

Niall’s anger flares and the earth tremble, he stalks his way over to Zayn, backing the powerless boy into a corner. “You know damn well what I am talking about,” Niall yells. “Tell me where my father is!” 

In the midst of commotion, Louis thought it’d be best to make his escape. So when Liam sped over to Niall, grabbing the boy by his shoulders and taking care not to touch his skin as he pulled Niall away from Zayn, Louis began edging towards the window. 

Liam successfully pulls Niall back, locking the teen’s arms behind him in a hold that met much struggle but no purchase. “Niall,” Liam hissed. “You have to relax! You’re going to hurt innocent people, perhaps my mom!” 

Niall relaxed suddenly, the storm that had begun to brew calming. He was many things, but he was not a Malik—he didn’t hurt innocent people. 

Louis almost made it to the window of the barn before Harry spotted him. 

“Liam!” Harry points to where Louis just jumped out of a window after Liam gives his brother his attention. 

Stunned, Liam moves towards the window as do the rest of them. He looks down and he doesn’t see any sign of Louis at all. There’s no blood, nothing to even say that the ground was disturbed much or anything. It was eerie. Just when he was about to turn back around, Liam catches a sound in the distance, the sound of Louis cursing. 

“Out back by the rusted tractor,” Liam tells his brother before he disappears. 

Harry is left there with Niall and Zayn glaring one another down. He debates putting them back down but didn’t want the strain of doing so, so instead he turns and walks away. 

Not wanting to be left alone in the room without his powers, Zayn follows behind, though he doesn’t like it much. He doesn’t say anything when he hears Niall moving to follow. If anything, he walks faster. 

Moments later, the group spills outside around the barn to where a rusted tractor and a small tool shed was in the process of being built. 

“Spill,” Liam demands. He had only just caught Louis, the little oracle seemingly already knew what Liam was going to do and evaded him like the plague. 

“He doesn’t know about Niall’s father,” Harry answers for him when it seems Louis will not. 

“Then why was he trying to leave?” Liam asks Harry, though he doesn’t take his eyes off Louis for a second. 

Harry arches a questioning brow at Louis. 

“Did you ever stop and think that maybe it’s because you two are psychopaths,” Louis sneers at the both of them, looking left and right for escape. But he doesn’t look all that worried. In fact, he looks a little smug. 

“Or to warn Malik that Zayn doesn’t have his powers anymore,” Niall pipes up. 

Liam hadn’t thought of that but then he shook his head. “But Louis is psychic. He would have known this was happening and warned Malik ahead of time. That’s possible, right?” 

Harry nods after taking a moment to consider it, “It’s possible, but I don’t see him doing that in his memories.” 

Liam nods to Harry, but when he opens his mouth he is speaking to Louis again. “Do you want to walk inside and keep your dignity, or would you like me to throw you over my shoulder—your choice.” 

Louis makes a face at Liam before he begins walking towards the direction of the entrance to the barn. 

“So all you had to do was threaten him?” Harry asked rhetorically. He shakes his head and Liam sort of cracks a smile for him. 

Niall, Zayn, Liam, and Harry all follow Louis back into the barn. 

The moment Liam makes it into the barn he drops like a sack of potatoes, pain twisting through his veins and taking root in the pit of his stomach. Liam knows this feeling. He’s very familiar with this sick, stomach-twisting, acid-churning, gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of his stomach, radiating all over his body is only the effect of kryptonite. 

_Therrssp!_

Louis gasps, ducking at the object that whizzes by his head and then turns just in time to see where the object imprints. 

A dart flies through the air and Harry drops next, eyes open and aware, but body unresponsive to his commands. Beside him, Niall drops next. Unlike Liam and Harry, Niall is unconscious, mouth agape as though he were sleeping soundly. 

Boots thump against the floor stirring dust and hay as Malik leans down towards Liam. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing,” Malik begins, voice low so that even Liam had trouble hearing him over the pain. With the kryptonite so close the pain spike, but Malik doesn’t care. “But I want you to know that you have only succeeded in making me further my plans for you.” 

Liam watched Zayn stand next to his father, looking at them all, but Liam swore that Zayn’s eyes lingered on him. Before he could attempt to process that over the pain, a boot connected with his temple and everything goes black. 


	6. Relief is Shortlived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam awakens, bound to a chair in an unknown place. It's white, sterile, and has a small white table with a silver case and kryptonite. What could go wrong?

The last thing Liam remembers is pain. Sickness inducing, knife-twisting-in-your-gut type of pain. And Zayn, too. Zayn’s warm smiles, his touches, his chocolate eyes with the flecks of gold... The very first kiss shared between them...

When Liam comes around he is met with a white light so intense that he has to blink a few times to adjust his vision. His stomach is churning and he feels nauseous. When his vision is adjusted, Liam takes in the room. It’s white. From floor to ceiling and the table in between—white. The only two things that are not white, Liam notices, is a medium sized square silver case sitting at the edge of the table nearest to him, and a round green ball of kryptonite encased in an easy access flip lip lead box.

Liam reaches out to try to investigate the silver case but finds that he is bound to his seat by a large chain consisting of reinforced steel leading to cuffs around his wrists. Struggling is useless thanks to the cuffs. Liam finds that his ankles are linked to hooks bound to the floor with a chain that wraps a few times around his torso (but not his arms) and locks in the back.

Before Liam has any more time to investigate his whereabouts or the silver case on the table, a door opens up from amongst the smooth white wall he is facing (the door is so perfectly blended with the wall that even Liam didn’t recognize it until it opened) and a figure steps through.

“Zayn,” Liam breathes. His voice is full of relief though his speech is slightly mumbled via the effects of the kryptonite. “Thank Go’ you foun’ m’.”

Whatever amount of relief Liam was feeling in that moment was quickly and thoroughly distinguished by the two man security team that followed and their employer, Zayn’s father, Mr. Malik. One by one they stepped through the door, all filing in until at last Mr. Malik stood before them all.

“Liam!” Malik’s voice is cheery, as if he didn’t have Liam capture and bound. “My gods, it’s been so long since we’ve last seen one another. How’s your mother?”

Liam doesn’t try to answer; doesn’t even think he could give the appropriate amount of dry sarcasm and insults if he tried.

Zayn shuts the door causing it to re-blend with the wall once more, disappearing smoothly back in with the paint job. Zayn looks nervous as he steps into the room. His tongue darts out and swiftly licks his bottom lip before he continues forward before sitting in the chair that Liam just noticed was to his right. Without pausing to look at Liam, Zayn grabs the silver case on his way to the seat and opens it to reveal several needles, syringes, and multicolored tubes presumably used for collecting blood.

If possible, Liam somehow pales further at the sight of the needles, knowing his skin is vulnerable when exposed to kryptonite. “Zayn,” Liam slurs, panic making him slightly more alert even though his eyes are heavy and his lips feel numb. “Don’ do th’s.”

“Come now, Liam,” Malik says as he walks over to them, leaving his guards behind to watch the door. “Be a good sport. Just a few vials of blood and it’ll all be over.”

Of course, Liam wants to know what they want with his blood. What could they possibly understand about his DNA? What if they didn’t? What if they kept him here under kryptonite-coated lock and key as some kind of lab rat to study? Liam’s breathing picks up and he feels Zayn’s warm, skinny, soft fingers on his wrist, turning it as he begins to look for a vein.

It doesn’t take him long. Soon, the needle is in Liam’s arm.

Malik comes over to view the progress.

Zayn looks like he’s being interrogated, giving forced, bitter smiles to his father in acknowledgement. Malik doesn’t notice.

“You know the _interesting_ thing about this, Liam?” Malik begins and Liam feels the threat of a monologue coming on. He isn’t disappointed. “As you and everyone else from Smallville know, a couple of years ago, a meteor shower hit our small, beloved little town. To the residents of this town, it was a tragedy that family-owned businesses were destroyed and a few lives were lost—but no. You see, within those meteors contains the potential for a new species—an empowered species.”

Malik pauses in his monologue long enough to gauge Liam’s reaction. The recognition in the slight widening of Liam’s eyes seems to be all the confirmation Malik needed and he continues with a smile. “So I had a few thousand of those rocks collected, tested along with those exposed to the radiation of the rock and then I wondered, ‘what of the capabilities of the people already transformed by the meteor rock?’ So here we are.”

“Why do you need me?” Liam asks. As if he doesn’t already know the answer.

Malik shakes his head at Liam’s pathetic attempt. “Now the _funny_ this about this is, we don’t even need you, Liam, just your blood.”

Had this been any other day, Liam could have and would have gladly taken them all down and strolled out without a care in the world. Okay, maybe an exaggeration because Liam is well, _Liam_ —he’d wonder about each of the people he’s taken down and whether or not he hit them too hard.

Having Malik this close only makes it harder on Liam when he turns to Zayn for comfort and finds that the entire while that Zayn is setting up to draw Liam’s blood, he does not talk or make eye contact. With either of them.

“Zay’,” Liam tries to plea once more.

“Hush,” Zayn speaks for the first time since entering the room. At this point, he’s cleaning Liam’s inner elbow with a cloth laced with alcohol. “I just need to finish this.”’

By this point Liam is so angry that he doesn’t even care to ask why they want to do this. He lets his mind drift out of his body as Zayn switches out yet another tube—this time a green one for a purple. Sickened, Liam turns his thoughts to other things, like where Harry or Niall was and how they were being treated. He’s just about to demand the information (though how intimidating he is at the moment is quite laughable) when Malik begins speaking again, this time to Liam.

“You’re friends are all fine, by the way,” Malik states. The way he says it makes Liam feel as though there is ‘for now’ coming. And sure enough, seconds later, “for now.”

Liam’s stomach drops beneath the floor at this news, as clichéd and expected as it was. Coldness runs through Liam’s veins, an icy chill that feels like hopelessness and loss and suddenly Liam feels like crying. Harry was smart, wickedly smart and he would get them all out. Liam believed that. He had to or he had nothing else, especially not his powers.

He waits.

Silence reins in the room and nothing could be heard but Liam’s labored breathing and the click and clang of metal on metal as Zayn finishes up with drawing Liam’s blood.

“Dad?”

Both Liam’s and Malik’s eyes snap to Zayn, Liam a bit slower. He feels Malik’s eyes on him as he watches Zayn, wondering where he was going with this. Malik must be wondering the same.

“I think I can finish up the rest here alone,” Zayn holds out the vials of blood, licking his lips nervously. “Liam won’t be any trouble, will you, Liam?”

Liam kind of can’t help but think how cute he is in his white lab coat. He smiles—or tries to, rather. Whatever ill-looking facial expression crossed his features seemed to be enough of a confirmation that Liam will behave because Malik accepts the blood vials and heads towards the doors, taking the two guards with him.

The moment that Malik is on the other side of the door, Zayn rushes over to the case and slams it closed. Liam begins feeling better the second the lead box is shut. The pain disappears, the nausea clears, and color slowly begins returning back to his cheeks. His eyes are aware now—hyperaware, even—as he takes in his surroundings.

“Zayn?” Liam says with confusion. He looks down to the chains holding him and knows that if he wanted to, he could snap them off, but he promised he’d behave. “Where are Harry and the others? Zayn?”

Zayn doesn’t face Liam, doesn’t think he could if he wanted to. “They are in a different part of the facility, Liam,” he explains. Zayn turns and there are tears in his wide, panicked eyes. Liam is out of his seat in an instant, breaking his binds with seemingly no resistance to sweep Zayn into his arms.

The second Liam’s arms wrap around Zayn, it’s like a damn had burst. The waterworks flow freely as he tries to speak over the lump in his throat, tell Liam how sorry he is and how he didn’t know.

“It’s okay,” Liam is quick to assure him. Stroking his hair, rubbing his arm, comforting Zayn. As much as he’d like to do this all day and all night and perhaps talk, too, but right now they both have a job to do. So, “Zayn? I need you to get a hold of yourself. Okay?”

But Zayn isn’t listening. He’s still rambling on about how terrible he is, how he understands why Liam broke up with him, and how—Zayn’s ramblings are interrupted with Liam’s open palm colliding non-too-gently with the side of his face.

“Zayn!” Liam snaps. His eyes wide with fear and stress. “You have to keep it together. People are counting on us to save them. Where are Harry and the others being held?”

Quite frankly, the fact that Harry’s voice wasn’t filling his head right now only seemed to increase the worry. Not to mention that psycho Malik is walking around with five vials of Kryptonian blood!

Zayn seems to snap back to reality, then, hand rubbing his cheek where Liam slapped him. His eyes are no longer unfocused and are now fixed right on Liam. “My father mentioned that Harry and Louis are in the west wing, but he’s taken Niall for some special project in the east.”

Liam thinks. He has to get to Harry and Louis; perhaps the two of them have some idea as to what Malik is up to. And with Harry alive and conscious, he could help find Niall easily, or warn him. “Zayn, you have to get my blood back from your father. You _can’t_ let him use it.”

Zayn holds Liam’s gaze for a long, long moment. “Okay,” he breathes—promises.

Liam is out of the door before Zayn’s next breath. Smashing through the spot where the door exists and into the hallway it leads out to. The sounds of gunshots could be heard, followed by two separate grunts of pain and loud thumps that sound like bodies hitting the floor.

“I’m coming, Harry,” Liam hisses before he speeds off, heading west. 


	7. Something Kryptonian This Way Comes (Part 1 of 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam finds Harry. Zayn can't find his father. Niall is lost with Louis unaccounted for. And this is a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW... I don't even know where to begin with my apologies for not updating. I guess a chapter will help, huh?

Zayn takes a few more deep breaths after Liam’s departure. How did he find himself mixed up in all this? Why hadn’t he done something sooner? All questions that had to wait for later, he realized. After the sound of the two guards hitting the floor, Zayn knew it’d be safe to go after his father now and does so. The mansion is big but Zayn has life experience in this mansion, years of running from nannies and ditching body guards gives Zayn all the knowledge he needs to direct these hallways--unlike Liam. Poor Liam, Zayn thinks, as he jets down the halls in order to catch his father.

When Zayn finally reaches his father’s office, he isn’t there.

***

Liam followed the faint sound of Harry’s slow beating heart and finds his brother bound and gagged in the basement-turned-holding cell. There’s an IV in Harry’s arm dripping what appears to be liquid kryptonite into his bloodstream, wires stream from his cranium confines to a machine not too far off. “What’re they doing to you?” Liam whispered, to Harry’s shallow form. If Liam was expecting an answer from an unconscious Harry, he wasn’t getting one. Quickly, Liam began attempting to remove Harry from his confines. He smashes the machine right in the middle, making it useless and disconnecting whatever it was pumping into Harry. Feeling it was safe to remove the head piece of the device, Liam did so.

_“Behind you!”_

Harry’s voice in Liam’s head startles him, but does not delay his reflexes. He spins just in time to catch a fist intended for his jaw, instinctively thrusting an open palm against his attacker’s chest to repel the danger. As intended, Liam’s attacker flies backwards through the air landing in a heap on the ground a few feet away. The danger isn’t averted for long though, as the attacker pops up seconds later.

“Leave, now,” Liam commands, fixing his stance to match his opponents—defensive.

“I can’t do that,” the attacker says. He’s about Liam’s height and build with more hair; blond. His face is older, too, at least by a few years.

Harry is right behind them, unable to move to try and defend himself and that’s all that’s on Liam’s mind. “Then I’ll make you.” _Well actually..._

Either Liam stopped paying attention or Harry trailed off, whatever happened, Liam couldn’t hear Harry over the sound of his opponent’s battle cry he launched himself at Liam. Liam meets him halfway, super speed giving him the slight distance away from Harry that Liam wanted. As Liam and his attacker meet in the middle, it’s an explosion of fists. In the end Liam is out skilled, tossed like a ragdoll into the machine he smashed earlier with his fists. The collision hurts less than the knowledge that while Liam is down, Harry is vulnerable.

_How are you even awake?_

_I’m not sure, but I feel..._

_Feel what?_

Liam wasn’t up too quickly. He could’ve smashed his way out effortlessly, but the possibility of a stray piece of metal impaling Harry made him second-guess his escape. When Liam is out, he sees that the meta-powered assassin has a hand on Harry’s shoulder. Liam is much faster, however, and ends up tossing the opponent across the room. Instead of landing in a heap as he did before, the attacker twists midair and lands on his feet.

“How are you as strong as me?” Liam demands, confusion evident in his voice. As far he knew, he was the strongest kid on the block. Not that he had an ego or anything.

“What, you thought you were the only one on steroids?” A laugh. “Not even close. Malik has been giving us all abilities—warning us about people like you.”

Liam is even more confused now and he lets it show. “What do you mean?”

In lieu of an answer, Liam receives a whistle, the tone of which indicates that some type of cavalry will be arriving shortly. Seconds later, another Liam-looking body enters the room with glowing red eyes. At first sight, Liam recognizes the beginning of heat vision. Before Liam can dwell on this too much, the air stirs and his attention is drawn to a _third_ Liam-looking figure who appeared with speed that was decidedly Liam-like.

They all smirk at him.

***

The wall of books books. The desk. A lamp. The couch. All objects that have been ransacked during Zayn’s rampage to find some clue of where his father went or what he was planning to do. How could he have let Niall gain his power over nature? It was too much power for one person to handle—way too much for someone who doesn’t know how to control it. Just as Zayn is about to give up searching the office, someone walks in.

“What’re you doing, sweetheart?”

“Mom,” Zayn gasps. Looking around quickly, Zayn admits that his father’s office looks thoroughly invaded. “What are you doing here?”

Mrs. Malik enters the room, careful to step over some papers that were obviously carelessly thrown onto the floor. “I believe I asked you first,” she says as she reaches the desk. “Did you loose something?”

“Yeah,” Zayn answers. “Dad. Have you seen him?”

Mrs. Malik frowns. “Zayn, I don’t think your father would appreciate—”

Zayn raises his hand to cut her off, eyes hard and cold to match his voice when he says, “I don’t _care_ what he would appreciate.”

Unsurprisingly, his mother gasps at Zayn’s disrespect. It’s not enough that he runs through his father’s things like a child, but to talk back to his mother was simply unheard of. “What has gotten into you?” she asks, stepping forward to cup Zayn’s cheek.

And it’s not that Zayn wanted to hurt her, but every minute that he didn’t have Liam’s blood in his hands is another minute that his father _did_ , and Zayn couldn’t allow that. Putting aside his guilt at stepping around his mother’s concern, Zayn dips under his mother’s arms and rushes to the door of his father’s office with his mother’s voice calling after him.

“Zayn! Zayn Malik, you will stop this _instant_!”

There was no denying the amount of _mother_ Mrs. Malik put into her tone—the tone that froze Zayn in his place and wiped all thought of pursuing his father from his mind. Zayn took a deep breath, frozen in place and unable to meet his mother’s eyes.

In a softer tone now, Mrs. Malik says, “I asked you a question.”

Zayn mumbles something.

“Excuse me?”

Louder, Zayn says, “I said you never listen!”

Crossing her arms across her chest, Mrs. Malik shakes her head. “That’s not true.”

“It is true!” Zayn fires quickly. He fills himself getting angry but not the accompaniment of the rumble of Earth. Not even a vibration. “No matter what I tell you about Dad, you _never_ listen. So if you’re not going to tell me where he is, then...”

She waits for him to finish, but Zayn isn’t sure what to say. They both know that he’s going to leave if he wants to; he already has a hand on the door. Silence dawns for a few seconds before Zayn twists the knob to leave.

“Wait,” Mrs. Malik says, “If you talk, I’ll listen.”

From across the room, Zayn analyzes his mother’s face, senses that she’s telling the complete truth. Unfortunately for her, though, “Now isn’t the time.” Zayn opens the door to leave and runs straight into a fist.

His mother’s scream of shock is the last thing Zayn notes before everything goes black.

***

“Ugh,” Niall groans upon awakening. His head feels like lead and his eyes have a hard time focusing. There’s a ringing high pitched whine in his ears, too, making his head feel as though it’s splitting open. “Wha’s goin’ on?” Niall mumbles to the best of his ability. He raises his hands to cling to his head and finds that they are chained.

“Oh, you’re awake. Finally,” a familiar voice drawls.

Niall would glare if his eyes were under his command, but at the moment his irises were agents of free will. “Louis,” he spits. “What do you want?” Further examination reveals that the chains are linked to two separate support beams, able to be wound as someone would see fit.

Louis watches Niall for a moment before shaking his head and approaching. “You’re not going to get out.”

In the crap-tastic state that Niall feels right now, he believes Louis. “So what’s your plan?” Niall asks sarcastically, not giving Louis the time to answer. “Trap us all here like he did to my father? Service out our gifts to his warlord buddies?”

Louis scoffs. “You think I want to spend my weekend holding people hostage?”

Niall arches a brow that tells Louis exactly what Niall is thinking: ‘ _Don’t you?’_

Anger stiffens Louis features. When he speaks, his voice is low and hard. “I am _nothing_ like Malik. That man is the devil.”

Niall laughs, either from incoherency or because from his position, Louis seems a lot like Malik. “So what does that make you?” Niall chuckles, “His antichrist?”

Louis just glares before turning and walking towards some computer, typing a mile a minute.

Whilst he has a free minute, Niall takes stock of his position. He’s bound, not gagged, but empowered with the elements of nature. Looking at these chains, he figures they couldn’t hold him. Not really. Unfortunately for Niall, though...

“You don’t know how to use Zayn’s power,” Louis calls to Niall without looking up from the computer. “If you try, you’ll create an earthquake large enough to bring the building down with everyone in it.”

Niall believes that, but he also believes Liam is strong enough and fast enough to get Harry out. If the building came crashing down, Liam would definitely be safe and he’d make sure that Harry was. And without a father to go home to,—nothing, actually—Niall really didn’t have a lot too loose.

The room begins to shake with small tremors, the beginnings of what Niall hopes to be a devastating quake.

When Louis notices, he stops typing and faces Niall. “I wouldn’t,” Louis warns. Niall doesn’t answer him, though, so Louis grabs an iPad and walks over to him. He clicks a button and the screen flashes to life. The image on the screen isn’t actually an image at all; it’s feed from a live camera. The scene playing back reveals a small room covered in padding with barred windows. There’s someone bound and gagged to a chair that sits directly in the center of the room. When Niall’s eyes focus, he gasps and the tremors die down.

Niall breathes, “Dad?”

***

_Wham!!_

Liam wasn’t even sure where his counter-part obtained a pipe, but the fact that it felt like it left a permanent indention on Liam’s cheek, was enough to wipe away all musings. Honestly Liam felt he could’ve dealt with the brute of the bunch, but to have his abilities splayed out upon three different people is a little challenging. They are _people_ , after all, and Liam doesn’t want to hurt them.

The impact of the landing is nowhere near graceful as Liam crashes down, sliding across the floor and leaving a trail of upturned granite. Truth is, they hadn’t been fighting for too long, but ever second that Malik is unaccounted for with Kryptonian blood is a second too long; Liam feels as though he’s been here an eternity.

_Stop playing around, Liam! Take these guys out and get me out of this thing!_

_What do you think I’m trying to do?!_

When Liam hops up, he doesn’t even have a second to breathe before the air stirs with speed of Flash-Liam’s approach and he has to fend off a thousand fists. It’s going well until there’s a searing pain at Liam’s back that feels a lot like—Liam doesn’t even get to finish the thought before Brute-Liam appears, leaping through the air and adding enough force behind his punch that when it connects and Liam hits the floor, his head slams hard enough to go through the granite.

All the while, Harry is unable to move.

The physical pain is nothing Liam can’t handle. He’s had worse and knows that when he feels the sun again, all evidence of this fight will be erased. Unfortunately, though, Harry doesn’t have the same abilities. If he gets hurt, it’ll take months for the physical damage to disappear, and years for Liam’s emotional wounds to begin to even scab.

_Don’t you see that you have the upper hand? Stop fighting them with the same strengths._

_What do you mean?_

_You’re matching your strength and speed to the opponent. Switch it up._

Before Liam has time to fully think through this, he is being raised off the floor by Brute-Liam. Flash-Liam and Firestarter-Liam join him, grinning. Liam doesn’t struggle against his strength, but he does see where this is about to go. No more.

Quickly, Liam uses his heat vision to burn Brute-Liam’s hands and drop to the floor where he—for once—lands gracefully. Firestarter-Liam fires after a second’s hesitation, but Liam is quicker—a second is all he needs-- and ducks behind Brute-Liam. The screams and sounds of sizzling flesh isn’t something Liam is sure that he’s going to forget quickly, but it is something he will ignore for his survival. As Brute-Liam drops to the ground, Liam takes off towards the exit. Stunned from Liam’s escape, it takes Flash-Liam a few seconds to catch up and take off after Liam with the same speed. What Flash-Liam didn’t expect is for Liam’s steel-like arm to clothes-line him the second he meant to turn at the door. Going as fast he was, he wasn’t prepared at all and would be down for a while.

Okay, yeah, Liam understands Harry’s point of view now. Instead of matching his opponents, he should’ve been using the fact that he was three of them combined to his advantage. In truth, Liam was worried about not hurting anyone. It’s an ironic thought, though, as Liam steps back into the room and his eyes instantly flash to unmoving body of Brute-Liam.

“Chester?” Firestarter-Liam cries, shaking Brute-Lia—Chester’s body. Firestarter-Liam looks up when Liam walks back in, his eyes bleeding from blue to red. “You did this,” the Firestarter accuses, tone hard and unforgiving. “He was my friend and you killed him!”

Liam’s sad for the death that was inadvertently at his hands, but he will not be blamed for it. It was not fire that was shot from _his_ eyes that hit Chester in the chest. “What about _my_ friend?” Liam asks, not upset. “He didn’t choose... _this_ ,” Liam gestures towards Harry’s form, strung up to machines save for what Liam already rescued from him. There’s still an IV in his arm, pumping green liquid into his veins.

The Firestarter looks over to where Harry’s seemingly unconscious form lays and then back down to Chester. “I’m so sorry,” he whines, breaking out into a sob.

Liam carefully unhooks Harry and is out of the room before Harry can finally open his eyes.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have been -quite- the busy bee lately. This fic will be wrapping up soon, I believe. To Save a Fae(t) may have a few more chapters, but it, too, will be wrapping up soon.. I'm guestimating 9-10 chapters for that one. So anyway, if you enjoyed Comments and Kudos are appreciated and very inspiring. Special thanks to "babeonline" for the encouragement!


	8. Something Kryptonian This Way Comes (Part 2 of 2)

“Quiet, Trisha!” Yaser whispers fiercely. “I did what had to be done.”

He snaps his fingers and two people come to lift Zayn away.

“No!” Trisha cries, rushing for her child. She is blocked by her husband; they struggle to no end, her eyes never leaving Zayn until he is out of sight. When she does choose to turn her sights upon her husband, it is with a glare so icy that Jack Frost might contemplate dubbing her Queen of Frost.

Yaser drops his hands. Message received.

“What are you doing to my son?” Trisha asks, tone promising much more pain than a forty-eight hour labor and child birth without the epidural.

“When Zayn wakes up, he will be gifted again,” Yaser explains.

Trisha goes back to slapping Yaser anywhere she can hit him. The first few hits Yaser allows because he feels he deserves them, but eventually he grabs Trisha’s hands and stills them firmly.

“He’s special now!” She shouts, on the verge of tears. A part of her doesn’t understand. They were just so happy a while ago and suddenly Yaser changed. He started going on and on about being prepared for what’s “out there,” as if there were some foreign species living amongst them. As if they were under attack and didn’t even know it. For a while, Trisha had just ignored him until recently he’d said he’d discovered the answer—said he’d got it all “figured out.”

Yaser softens his voice as he looks his wife in the eye. “No he isn’t. Not anymore.”

Trisha doesn’t sob then, but tears fall, because it feels like Yaser just pushed a knife through her heart. When she speaks, her voice is somehow calm, but hurt. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Trisha,” Yaser responds, the tone of his voice indicating that he knew she knew more than she was letting on. “Ever since Zayn was a child, his first tantrum and that first Earthquake. You never questioned how it hit only a few houses and not the city. Further back than that, when Zayn was a newborn, did you think it was coincidence that it stormed every time he cried?” Yaser shakes his head in answer for her. “No,” he says softly. “You knew.”

***

Truth be told, Louis wasn’t an evil person. Like everyone else, he was misunderstood—caught up in a bad crowd and bailed out by one Yaser Malik. One would think with the ability to see the future, everything could be planned down to a tee, but that wasn’t Louis. He didn’t see this outcome when he first agreed to begin helping Malik. Hostages, ransoms, and full-time danger radar for Zayn made up the last six or so months of Louis’ life. Over the course of that time, though, Zayn and Louis had bonded over their mutual need to get out from under Yaser’s thumb.

“You’re an animal,” Niall accuses. Since finding out where his father’s being held, Niall hasn’t tried to tap into that ocean of power he obtained from Zayn. Louis threatened to harm him before cutting off the footage. There was no proof that he would, but there was no proof that he wouldn’t either.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Louis says, finally done typing on the computer. When he turns to face Niall it’s with sorrow in his eyes. “When Malik comes in, he’s going to want you to create a storm, specifically a bolt of lightning with enough electricity to alter the chemical structure of kryptonite—make it bond with Liam’s blood. I’m here to instruct you to use Zayn’s power—what kind of head space you need to be in for the right effect. I’m no Zayn, but as far as I know, anger creates the earthquakes, despair creates rain, and jealousy creates storms…” Louis trails off when he notices Niall is giving him some weird type of stare. “What?”

Niall shrugs casually, still staring at Louis in wonder. He’s no more than a few feet away now, having walked closer during his speech. “It’s just... You’re telling me everything.”

Louis scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Isn’t that what people do in this sort of situation? Big bad boss captures everyone and then reveals the big plan?”

Niall nods. “But not you. You’re psychic. You would’ve already seen my plan to try to escape, averting it with something that would make me not want to use this bomb I’ve got.”

“Hence the father situation,” Louis replies, throwing off Niall’s implications. “Duh, but—”

“But Malik didn’t recruit you for your insolence,” Niall states. “You would have known my power too, and what I planned to do when you get close.”

Louis swallows, tries to play off the accusation with a laugh. “What’re you talking about? No, Malik needs you to—,”

“So what was your plan?” Niall interrupts, curious. “Once you woke up, run off and hope I never give you your powers back? That Malik would no longer find you useful and wouldn’t go after you?”

Louis doesn’t know what to say. Most of what Niall was saying was true, but not for the reasons one would think. “You don’t understand,” Louis begins, wincing when Niall cuts him off with a shout.

“No, _YOU_ don’t understand!”

Feeling the beginnings of a tremor, Niall begins taking deep breaths, imagining his father’s fate helped temper his emotions until he was speaking somewhat normally again. “If I don’t see my father...” Niall shakes his head, chuckling without humor. “Well, I’m sure you can guess.”

Louis stares at Niall—no, past him, eyes far off and focused on something in a different plane of existence; the future. The vision was quick, but it was enough. Louis didn’t think one person was capable of so much devastation but apparently, Niall truly is a bomb.

***

Harry’s head is _screaming_ with a full on migraine and Liam’s jostling doesn’t help.

“Liam, wait,” Harry mumbles from the discomfort of Liam’s arms. “Put me down.”

Liam looks down to Harry, concerned. He doesn’t stop moving, though he does move slower. “What’s wrong?”

“Where is everyone?” Harry asks instead, squirming himself out of Liam’s arms to lean against a blessedly solid, motionless wall. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Liam sighs and responds, “Malik has vials of my blood.”

Harry looks up, a sharp motion that his head protests. He winces as he replies, “What? How?”

Liam shakes his head. “That’s not important,” he says, feeling protective of Zayn. “What is important is finding everyone. Can you?”

Harry shakes his head, regretting it instantly. One would think he’d learn, but Harry was the type to make the same mistakes a few times simply to make sure it was a mistake. “No,” he moans, gripping his temple and squeezing his eyes shut. There are voices in Harry’s head; too many to even begin to articulate. Snippets of conversation blurring by his ear as if someone were shouting from a mega phone on a speeding train—loud, fleeting, and reoccurring. “It’s so... _loud!_ ”

Liam cocks his head to the side, worriedly watching as his brother slowly sits on the floor, caving in on himself and gripping his head. Personally, Liam didn’t hear anything, but his type of hearing was different. “Harry?” Liam asks, stepping forward.

When Harry looks up, he’s on the verge of tears. “Make it stop, Liam,” Harry pleads, voice cracking. He smacks his forehead a few times to try to claw the voices out, but they are relentless. Like bees in a hive with no queen, voices buzz around his mind in chaos.

Liam is by his brother’s side in an instant, laying comforting hands on his shoulder and knee. When he speaks, his voice is low and clear. “Listen to me, Harry,” Liam says. “Only the sound of my voice, okay? Can you do that?”

Somehow, through all the haze, Harry manages to catch clips of Liam’s voice—low and steady. Harry craves the tone of it, the comfort of Liam’s voice beneath all the noise. _Can_ he push the noise away and focus on it?

“Come on, Harry,” Liam says, gentle, low and steady still, coaxing.

_Just listen to the sound of my voice._

And Harry does, somehow, manage to focus only on Liam, gripping his brother for dear life—a life raft amongst endless, black oceans of noise.

_Liam... I can’t focus._

_What’s happening, Harry?_

_I don’t know!_

Harry’s voice in Liam’s mind is panicked and scared and Liam does his best to convey positive thoughts whilst wrapping his arms around his brother tighter, protecting him, and steadying him in his embrace.

_Think,_ Liam encourages, _there had to be some point you got something from Malik, or someone, right?_

Harry shakes his head, not in answer but to clear away the residual dull ache of people at the back of his mind.

_I think Malik had plans to enhance someone’s powers. How or why, I can’t remember._

Liam frowns in thought and Harry doesn’t need to be telepathic to know that Liam’s blaming himself for not doing something sooner.

_There was nothing you could’ve—_

Liam cuts him off.

_We need to find Niall._

Harry’s eyes widen in fear at the prospect of diving into that hell hole. He isn’t entirely positive that he’ll come back. There is a high possibility that he’ll get so lost in the voices, he’ll cease to exist as himself, forced to dig out of mountains of incessant chatter and, when the night comes, overwhelming visions of consciousnesses at rest.

_I can’t, Liam. I’m not strong enough. Don’t make me, please!_

Liam grips Harry’s shoulders tight and turns him so that they are facing one another. “Look at me,” Liam says, when Harry tries to avoid his gaze. “You are one of the strongest people I know, Harry,” Liam says softly when he finally makes eye contact. “When we found out our abilities, you were advancing so quickly I was afraid you’d leave this world,” Liam chuckles. “You are intelligent and capable—far beyond what Malik thinks of you. Whatever he did to you in that machine, you can handle. I believe in you.”

Staring into Liam’s eyes and seeing so much faith and sincerity is overwhelming. Harry has to break his gaze and turn away after a moment because...wow. He never knew Liam thought so highly of him. And sure, he’s read Liam’s mind lots of times, but he’s never _read_ Liam’s mind. Not about him, at least. Is he that strong? Does Liam really think he’s that strong?

_Yup!_

Harry looks up in surprise, then confusion. His eyes fall to where his hands were gripping Liam’s on his shoulder and he’s startled into laughter, realizing that they’re connected still. Liam heard everything.

_Do you really think I have what it takes?_

_I really do._

And Harry believes him. Liam wouldn’t lie to him—couldn’t lie to him, not like this. So Harry closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, disappearing into his own mind. As soon as he let go of Liam, the voices flooded his head again like a swarm—a midnight wave attempting to overwhelm him, drag him out to sea with the high tide. But like a boulder in a river, Harry is unmoved; he commands quiet and the waves of voices dull down into a pool of still water, easily influenced by Harry’s slightest action—the way it should be.

“I did it,” Harry breathes, relaxing when it is finally, blessedly silent. “It’s quiet.”

Beside him, Liam relaxes as well, but not for long. “We still have to find the others,” Liam reminds him.

“Okay,” Harry nods, putting his hands to his temples. “Who first?”

Liam thinks for a moment. Niall would probably be the smartest person to find right now, but with Zayn’s powers in his arsenal, he’s more than capable of taking care of himself. “Find Louis,” Liam says, his eyes meet Harry’s, and they mean business.

Harry closes his eyes.

***

Zayn’s pretty tired of getting knocked unconscious now; he realizes this when he awakens in the arms of two unknown people. His vision is blurry, but the fact that his feet are dragging against the ground probably means that these aren’t nice people. If only Zayn could remember who’d punched him. Before he could get a good theory-list going, he blacks out again.

***

Trisha can’t meet Yaser’s eyes.

They’re still in Zayn’s office, but the tension in the room has calmed much. Trisha sits on the couch with a glass of bourbon whilst her son is being dragged off to God knows where. Any attempt to leave was thwarted when some brawny, six-foot-something man came and shut the door. Yaser walks around his office righting things that Zayn trashed like nothing’s happening. Like he didn’t just knock out his son, have him dragged away, and admit to him having influence of the weather. Trisha wants to throw her glass at him.

The truth is she had some inkling that only grew stronger over time. She never really knew, but she did always _know_ her child was special. “When we first brought him home from the hospital, I figured he was special,” she says, voice low and dreamy like she’s staring at a memory. A second goes by and she’s back in the room, icy glare on Yaser. When she speaks, it’s with a tone that can cut glass, “But I don’t understand why you need to do this!”

Yaser sighs, setting the last remnants of his paper work onto his desk. There was no way he was getting them organized any time soon; the books either, now that he glances at them. He’d righted the lamps and all the books—even stopped to have himself a glass of bourbon before going at the papers. “There are beings in our world, built as weapons to destroy us,” Yaser explains.

Trisha doesn’t understand what Yaser is talking about, and when she goes to tell him so, Yaser continues on.

“I do not know from where they hail, but I do know they cannot be stopped by any mortal means.”

“Mortal means? What—”

“Water can’t drown him, fire can’t char him,—his _skin_ is tougher than diamond! And if that isn’t enough, let’s give him enhanced senses and the ability to produce flames from his eyes!”

“His?” Trisha wonders. “You speak as if from experience.”

Yaser says nothing.

“Who is this weapon, Yaser?”

Yaser meets Trisha’s eyes then, obviously at war with himself about spilling the information.

“Yaser,” Trisha tries again, coaxing. “Who is the weapon?”

***

“Niall,” Louis tries for the umpteenth time. “You have to listen to me; I’m on your side!”

But Niall isn’t listening. He doesn’t want to hear anything that Louis has to say unless it is information about the status of his father’s release. Anything else is bullshit. “How are you on our side?” Niall asks, careful to keep his emotions in check. He’s going to need that anger for later. “You lead us all into a trap, get us kidnapped, and then not only separate and kidnap metahumans, you kidnapped my father! Forgive me, but that doesn’t seem like the work of someone who I’d want on my side.”

Louis is steady shaking his head as Niall speaks, not interrupting, but denying the truth. “Look at it from my perspective,” Louis tries. “It’s going to take you a minute to figure out exactly what buttons to push to do what you hope to achieve anyway.”

Niall glares. “And still you haven’t stopped me.”

“I’ve got time, but not a lot so listen up,” Louis cuts to the chase. “From the very beginning, I’ve only had one plan.”

“Bondage,” Niall says sarcastically, gesturing to his confines.

Louis shoots him a flat stare and Niall lets him continue with a gesture of surrender. “I wanted to meet Harry,” Louis confesses.

“...”

Niall opens his mouth to speak but closes it again. Of all the witty comebacks he had on the tip of his tongue, none of them were prepared for that answer. Yeah, sure, Harry was a great person—sunny smile, curly hair, bright eyes, and all —Niall had a thing for him at first, admittedly, but to come from Louis? A guy any of them have known for only two minutes? It’s kind of bizarre. “Uhh... What?”

Louis hurries to explain, “A while ago I started having these visions during my dreams. At first, I thought they were just bizarre fantasies, you know? Maybe I saw a guy walking down the street, thought he was hot, and we mated like rabbits in my subconscious—(Louis doesn’t even pause for Niall’s wince of the mental image. If anything, his lips tilt up a bit) but no. I know I had never seen this guy. I’ve never had a repeat vision before, my visions always change. That’s why I knew I had to meet him.”

Niall listens, but doesn’t really process. In all of Smallville, Harry’s probably the only friend that Niall has. Not that Niall is an outcast or anything; he just doesn’t like a lot of people. Harry, though, has a way of squirming his way into your life—and apparently, visions—and taking root quickly. “So you thought what exactly? The best way to meet this guy is to bend over for Malik?”

“You’re a poet with words,” Louis returns flatly, his look of annoyance replaced seconds later with one of disgust at the mental image of actually—Louis shudders. “No, once I had the vision a couple of times, I figured I was making all the wrong choices for this to happen. Enter Malik.”

“Oh is that how that works?”

Continuing on as if he hadn’t heard, Louis goes on to say, “He knew about my gifts, told me he had an opportunity for me. When I saw the line from him to Harry, I had to take it.”

“Speed up to the part about the kidnapping,” Niall drawls.

Louis sighs, turning and taking a few steps away. His lips move, but Niall can’t make out the words.

“Speak up, please,” Niall calls. “I’d follow you but...” His chains rattle.

“That wasn’t a part of the plan from the beginning,” Louis says, turning back to Niall. “But, you know, you’re welcome.”

Niall begins to interject, his anger rising again. Before he can say a word, though, Louis is speaking again.

“The machine you’re in was intended for Zayn—to harness his power with or without his consent,” Louis explains. “According to Malik, Zayn still has his powers.”

Confusion seems to be the theme of the day. Niall had heard about those movies with clairvoyants being a mind fuck, but to live in one was worse. “I’m not following. If Zayn has no powers, put _him_ in the machine and—”

“I haven’t finished,” Louis rushes. “There’s another constant vision I’m having—Malik _will_ obtain Liam’s powers. We’ll need you when that time comes.”

Niall arches a brow. More than any words can stress, the look he shoots Louis and then the chains says he’s still not getting it.

“The machine also disable’s Zayn’s powers,” Louis further elaborates. “I didn’t want the shit storm that could’ve been.”

“Then why my father?” Niall doesn’t understand.

“He’s the one who built the machine and he can single-handedly bring it down. The hostage situation works both ways.”

“I’m still—”

“Stop interrupting!” Louis snaps. “Zayn will be here soon and they are going strap him into the machine. Niall, you taking Zayn’s powers wasn’t calculated, but it’s made this mess a hell of a lot easier to clean up in the end.”

“But I can’t hold two powers at once,” Niall says, but he has a feeling Louis knows this.

Said feeling is confirmed when the clairvoyant shoots him a knowing look. “I was hoping you could give Zayn his powers back when he comes through that door in ten seconds. If you don’t, then Zayn will be fine, I’ll make sure of it.”

Niall narrows his eyes. “What about me?”

Louis frowns. “You’re already in the machine,” he says.

And Niall gets the implications. The only way to become useless to them is to release Zayn his powers. But there is no way that Louis is letting Zayn get into that machine. Niall could create an event big enough to bring down the building, but if what Louis is saying about the machine is true, he wouldn’t be able to see it through before Louis shuts down his powers. Decisions...

“Five,” Louis counts, eyes on Niall. “Four, three, and two...”

Niall says nothing, but his decision is already made. He meets Louis’ eyes and Louis smiles.

“Wise choice.”

***

“It’s never taken you this long before,” Liam comments when five minutes go by and there is no report from Harry. Harry, to his credit, seems to be doing the best he can if his facial expressions are any indication.

“I’ve never had to surf through this many heads before,” Harry replies, sighing and opening his eyes. “I was almost there, but then—‘Jenna from third period _totally_ needs a new haircut.’” Harry scoffs. “It’s like he’s slipping away underneath other voices, getting quieter and quieter like...”

“Like he doesn’t want to be heard?” Liam guesses.

Harry nods.

“So that must mean he knows we’re looking for him.”

As if on cue, Harry jumps in surprise, eyes widening. He looks at Liam as if expecting him to explain, but Liam looks lost.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Louis,” Harry informs, eyes on something Liam can’t see, voice distant. “He’s... calling me.”

Liam’s surprise goes missed by Harry, somewhere in his mind speaking to Louis. “We have to find him Harry,” Liam says urgently. “Get him to give us a location.”

“I’m on it.”

***

“I don’t have time now, Trisha,” Yaser says, fixing his papers onto his desk in some resemblance of neat before he heads to the door. “There is business that needs attending.”

“Whatever you’re planning won’t work,” Trisha calls to Yaser, arms around her torso. “You don’t know what Zayn is capable of.”

Yaser stops, hand on the knob. “I am well aware of what our child is capable of,” he tells his wife as he turns around slightly to face her, finishing with, “but it is Zayn who does not know what _I_ am capable of.” He pats his pockets and the vials of Liam’s blood rattle unseen beneath the cover of his dark shirt.

Trisha says nothing else—doesn’t even take the bait, though she wonders what other horrors her husband has pulled.

Satisfied, Malik walks out the door and briskly makes his way to the chamber where Zayn should be awaiting strapped to the machine.

Today, things are looking up.

***

It turns out there are some moments where Louis can time things just so. By the time the two men are dragging Zayn through the door, Niall is out of the machine and hidden, rubbing his wrists where the cuffs of the machine chafed him. From his hiding spot, he has a clear view of Louis, the two unknown men, and Zayn. The two of them are dragging Zayn towards the machine, but Louis’ voice stops them halfway.

“Leave him there,” Zayn demands of the delivery boys. “There is additional preparation that must be underway immediately. Leave.”

The two men look at one another and then Zayn, one of them speaking.

“Who made you the boss?”

Louis tilts his head. “You didn’t get the memo?” he asks with faux concern. Then quick as a pistol, Louis snaps back to himself and demands the guards to leave. Seemingly with reluctance, they leave the room, slamming the door behind them.

Niall moves to give Zayn back his powers as instructed, but Louis stops him.

“Not yet.”

Too Niall’s confusion, Louis goes about removing Zayn’s shirts and fixing his body with something akin to an EKG. He then sets him up on the machine, making sure he got him all nice and perfect, right before he _SLAPS_ the hell out of him.

Zayn wakes with a start—to say the least. His hands are already shooting forward, summoning an element no longer at his command. When he finds that his hands are bound, he is slightly more freaked, but Louis face comes to focus and Zayn relaxes. “You’re getting me out,” Zayn breathes. “I almost killed you.” He chuckles.

Louis doesn’t. “No you didn’t.”

Zayn looks confused.

“So we’re going to pretend you still have powers?” Louis shrugs. “Alright, if that’s how you want to do it.”

Louis goes about typing away things in a computer. After the press of a few buttons Zayn’s machine powers on, his vitals popping up on screen in an organized fashion.

“Liam will come for me,” Zayn says casually—well as casually as he can when he realizes that he is betrayed by his best friend. To avoid looking at Louis, Zayn starts messing with the chains and looking for weak points.

“Actually,” Louis responds, “I’ve sent Liam to a different location.”

***

“I’ve got the location... sort of,” Harry says when he’s done telepathically communicating with Louis.

“Where is it?” Liam is quick to ask, already on his feet and ready to move—ready to be useful.

Harry stands as well, touching his hand to Liam’s head and telepathically transferring the location. His headache is gone, thank God. “It’ll be quicker if you go on your own,” Harry suggests.

Liam doesn’t deny it but, “What will you do?”

“Follow up on a hunch,” Harry smiles. “Go to the location. Be careful.”

Liam just stares for a few seconds before giving him a tight hug, whispering for him to be careful. Harry hugs him back just as fierce and whispers the same. When they part, Liam takes off and is gone before Harry even takes a step in the opposite direction—headed for Louis.

“So, Louis,” Harry says as he walks, an amused smile on his face. “What’re you hiding from me, hmm?”

***

Trisha was on her way out of the door after Malik left. She was stuck, mind racing for options to save her son. But without all the variables, she could do no good. It was her plan to get out of this room and then...

A man enters the room quickly, his movements sharp and precise. The suddenness of his entry surprises Trisha enough to jump back and when she does, he shuts the door. The man--five-six with short spiky hair, sharp cheek bones, and a gym fetish—says nothing, but his look is obvious that Trisha isn’t leaving this office.

***

Yaser walks into the room containing a quiet Louis and a bound Zayn. It appears the machine is all hooked up and ready to go, so that only leaves a few things left. But the air is kind of awkward. Truth be told, Malik was pretty much hoping for Zayn to be unconscious and then he found out when Malik was...empowered.

That is not the case.

“Hello, Son,” is the only words Yaser can think to say and it’s made even worse when Zayn refuses to look at him.

Looking at Zayn, Louis can’t help but be sympathetic, but he has a job to do. Shaking off his feelings, he steps forward to Malik and announces, “Everything is set, Sir. With your approval, we may begin.”

Turning away from Zayn, Malik turns to face Louis when his son doesn’t so much as glance his way. “Let’s begin.”


	9. Family Reunion

The location Liam got turns out to be some small warehouse just outside of Smallville. What Harry—or Louis—failed to mention was that the location was being heavily guarded. Though there was no one in sight, Liam could see that the inside of the building was swarming with guards. A closer look tells him that there is someone being held below ground, though he can’t see whom. There was no possible way for Liam to sneak in and be discreet without taking out the guards at the control unit. One push of a button and Liam would have a whole room full of people to worry about getting hurt.

“Hey!”

So focused on watching, Liam must not have heard the approaching footsteps behind him. When he turns around, he’s met with a man dressed and armed like the guards inside the building. Sizing him up, he’s about Liam’s height and weight.

The Guard must not be a rookie, because when he saw the intent in Liam’s eyes, he had his gun drawn and trained on Liam with impressive speed. “You’re not supposed to be out here,” the Guard states.

“I disagree with that,” Liam returns coolly. “I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

The Guard narrows his eyes, finger itching on the trigger.

Even with that weapon in his hands, Liam knows the guy is no match for him. It’s unfair, really. The guy should have more guns.

Liam’s just finishing this thought when Itchy-Finger over there pulls the trigger. Having more than enough time to avoid the incoming bullet, Liam steps aside and watches as a... _green bullet_ shoots by!

And they are both stunned for a moment; the guard and Liam. The Guard is stunned due to the fact that a man just danced around a bullet from point blank range. Liam, because if his theory was right, that was a kryptonite bullet that he just dodged. A bullet that can actually _wound_ Liam.

Before anyone gets seriously hurt, Liam snatches the gun away and tosses it, knocking out the Guard quickly.

“Looks like that evened the odds a little bit,” Liam says when he’s changed into the guard’s clothes, radio included, and placed his on the guard. It was only fair.

***

Bound. Gagged. Powerless. And now they have his son. What’s a father to do when all seems hopeless? Since he’s been captured, Bobby has been tuning into the walkie-talkie frequencies and trying to figure out a way out of here. Every fifteen minutes or so, Bobby hears the same voices over and over as they check in and secure their posts or whatever. Luckily for Bobby, their fifteen minute intervals were coming up.

Bobby mouths along to the routine check-ins.

“Sector One, come in, over. Sector one clear, over. Sector two, come in, over.” Headquarters and Bobby waits for a second or two before repeating, “Come in sector two, over.”

They receive no reply.

***

“Sector one clear, over.”

Liam is halfway towards the entrance to the warehouse when a thought stops him. ‘Do the guards know what one another looks like?’ Usually in the movies, they all just die anyways so it doesn’t matter who knew who, but this isn’t a movie. These people have lives—not the best way to live them, but lives none-the-less—and families! Also, if they _do_ know one another, what’s to stop one of them from shooting Liam with one of those kryptonite bullets?

“Fucking Malik,” Liam hisses, caught halfway between finishing his rescue with his initial plan or saying fuck all and bringing down the house.

“Sector two, come in, over.”

Liam quickly grabs the walkie-talkie as if that’ll silence it. Recalling the movies he’s seen, he knows that if no one responds that they’ll send someone to check. If that doesn’t work, they’ll lock down the place and everyone’s going to be on high alert. If only Liam had a clear direction of where this guy was, then he’d be able to do something quicker with much less risk of everyone—Liam included—getting hurt.

“Come in sector two, over.”

Pressing the call-back button, Liam replies, “Sector two is clear, over.”

“Roger that, sector two. Over.”

A pressure that Liam wasn’t even aware he had lifts off his chest when he gets the all clear. Breathing a sigh of relief, Liam continues onward.

***

“Come in sector three, over.”

“That’s not sector two’s voice,” Bobby notes. Is Bobby the only one suspicious? In all the routine check-ins, one of the voices changed and not one noticed? What’s happening?

Suddenly the door to Bobby’s cell room opens and a guard steps through, walkie-talkie on his shoulder. “It’s time to move.”

“Move?” In all the reports, Bobby never heard a thing about being moved. Of course he never heard a thing about being kidnapped and yet...

“Yes, Sir. We’re moving you to a different facility for security reasons. We have reason to believe someone has infiltrated the premises.”

As the guard steps forward to undo Bobby’s restraints, the bound one can’t help but satisfy his curiosity.

“Who are you? You aren’t one of the regular guards I’ve seen.” With his confines now free, he rubs his wrists soothingly where the bindings rubbed them raw.

The guard smiles in return to that comment, showing a perfect row of white teeth. “I know. It’s time to move.”

~~***~~

Finding Louis was as easy as finding a grain of dirt in quicksand. But Harry is as patient as he is focused and it’s this determination that leads him down various hallways until he reaches a room with guards.

One of the guards step forward, making himself appear bigger with whatever authority he was granted. “What’re you doing here?”

“I’m not sure,” Harry replies conversationally as he approaches. “What’s in there?”

Both guards are on him now, attempting to block his view and path with their bulk and intimidation. “None of your business,” replies guard number two. “Now leave.”

But Harry doesn’t. He tilts his head slightly to the right, curls falling into his face. “This game of power has been really fun and all, but I’m kind of on a schedule right now and—”

“You don’t have permission to be here,” Guard One interrupts. “Leave before I call for reinforcements.”

“Open the door,” Harry commands of Guard Two and to his partner’s surprise, he moves to do so.

“What are you…?”

“Let him,” Harry commands when guard one moves to arrest his partner. Amazingly, the guard does as he’s told.

When the door opens, the two guards step back and let him walk through. On the inside there is another guard and Harry’s beginning to think that this is getting ridiculous. Where did Malik have the time to abduct and persuade so many people?

Before the guard can tell Harry to leave, the telepath silences him with a look.

“Who are you?” asks a woman’s voice that Harry couldn’t register.

He turns with surprise and then relaxes with recognition. “I could ask you the same thing. Let’s go.”

~~***~~

Trisha couldn’t quite fathom the reason Liam’s brother would be here or what he had to do with this. But he was Trisha’s escape, the direct route to her son and as far as she was concerned, that’s all she needed to hear.

“Where are we going?” Trisha asks, struggling to keep up with Harry’s long legs. “What are you doing to them?” she asks, gesturing to the three empowered guards in tow. Since Harry’s arrival, they’ve asked no questions, said no words, but somehow always seem to know what the right move is.

“We’re going to find Louis,” Harry explains, going further to explain before Trisha could freak. “Louis and Zayn are together.”

They arrive at an intersection of three possible choices: continue straight, turn right, or turn back. Harry doesn’t pause, he points down the corridor and without direction, two of the guards continue straight whilst Harry turns right, followed by Trisha and the last guard. “They are being influenced, right now. Pretty easily, I might add.”

“I don’t understand…” Trisha says again, on the verge of tears.

Harry stops and the guard follows his actions without question, almost causing Trisha to bump into him. She’s startled when Harry turns to face her, expression serious and solemn at the same time. “Your husband is a monster,” Harry tells her. “So far he’s assaulted minors, kidnapped, and is trying to steal unique biology and harness devastating power that he doesn’t understand… and that’s _this morning_ ’s to-do-list. But now? You’re going to help me get my brother back.”

It takes Trisha a moment to absorb all of this. She’s always known that her son was special, that her husband was...driven, but to accept facts like these would be to throw away precious years of marriage. “What can I do to help?”

~~***~~

 “I didn’t think you’d react like that, most people don’t.” Liam says by way of apology.

Liam’s current traveling companion takes a few deep breathes to even out his breathing, even as he wipes the remnants of the vomit on his sleeve. “Yeah, well most people don’t run quite as fast as you, um...”

“Liam,” he extends his hand.

“Bobby,” the elder replies with a shake.

“Listen, I hate to ask you to move, but we have to get back to my brother, quickly, and I don’t have a car...”

Bobby waves it off, pushing away from the support of one of the many convenient trashcans lined up and down the Metropolis streets and heads towards an even more conveniently parked, “Pagani Huayra, imported straight from Italy... It’s made with carbon fiber, the strong, lightweight, expensive material. She’s powered by a twin-turbo 6-liter V-12 engine, borrowed from Mercedes-Benz... And her owner treats her like trash. ”

Of all the things to say about a car (and from Liam that’s a lot to say) that was one of the weirdest. “How do you know?” The car looked to be in pristine condition.

Bobby runs a hand across the hood of the car a couple times, as if petting or soothing it before he makes eye contact with Liam. “She told me.”

Liam’s shock barely has time to register before Bobby moves, sharply and determined, to the driver’s side door. Liam thinks it’s locked and that the alarm is going to go off, he’s so paranoid looking around for the owner that he doesn’t notice Bobby is already inside the car until the engine starts.

“You said we had to move,” Bobby says when he rolls down the passenger window. “You coming or not?”


	10. Chapter 10

I'm sorry to say that I might not be finishing this work. I am not sorry for this particular work, but for those who've waited for an update and expected for the story to finish. If anyone is interested in taking over and/or offering an alternative ending it's all yours. Let me know. I would very much like for this to be completed though I do not think I am the one to complete it as I've lost my drive and have complete writer's block when it comes to this particular story.

 

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience and abrupt parting. I highly doubt this story will be finished by my hand.

 

Much appreciation to all those who took the time out of their lives to read/comment/kudo this story.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone regarding the details of Chapter 10 feel free to inbox me. :)


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